Formation of Plasmoid Chains in Magnetic Reconnection

Mar, 2009
5 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Rev.Lett. 103 (2009) 105004
e-Print:

Citations per year

2009201320172021202402468
Abstract: (arXiv)
A detailed numerical study of magnetic reconnection in resistive MHD for very large, previously inaccessible, Lundquist numbers (104S10810^4\le S\le 10^8) is reported. Large-aspect-ratio Sweet-Parker current sheets are shown to be unstable to super-Alfv\'enically fast formation of plasmoid (magnetic-island) chains. The plasmoid number scales as S3/8S^{3/8} and the instability growth rate in the linear stage as S1/4S^{1/4}, in agreement with the theory by Loureiro et al. [Phys. Plasmas {\bf 14}, 100703 (2007)]. In the nonlinear regime, plasmoids continue to grow faster than they are ejected and completely disrupt the reconnection layer. These results suggest that high-Lundquist-number reconnection is inherently time-dependent and hence call for a substantial revision of the standard Sweet-Parker quasi-stationary picture for S>104S>10^4.