Magnetic reconnection mediated by hyper-resistive plasmoid instability
Abstract
Magnetic reconnection mediated by the hyper-resistive plasmoid instability is studied with both linear analysis and nonlinear simulations. The linear growth rate is found to scale as SH1/6 with respect to the hyper-resistive Lundquist number SH≡L3VA/ηH, where L is the system size, VA is the Alfvén velocity, and ηH is the hyper-resistivity. In the nonlinear regime, reconnection rate becomes nearly independent of SH, the number of plasmoids scales as SH1/2, and the secondary current sheet length and width both scale as SH-1/2. These scalings are consistent with a heuristic argument assuming secondary current sheets are close to marginal stability. The distribution of plasmoids as a function of the enclosed flux ψ is found to obey a ψ-1 power law over an extended range, followed by a rapid fall off for large plasmoids. These results are compared with those from resistive magnetohydrodynamic studies.
- Publication:
-
Physics of Plasmas
- Pub Date:
- August 2013
- DOI:
- 10.1063/1.4819715
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1308.1871
- Bibcode:
- 2013PhPl...20h2131H
- Keywords:
-
- magnetic reconnection;
- plasma Alfven waves;
- plasma instability;
- plasma magnetohydrodynamics;
- plasma nonlinear waves;
- plasma simulation;
- plasma transport processes;
- 52.35.Qz;
- 52.35.Vd;
- 52.25.Fi;
- 52.30.Cv;
- 52.35.Bj;
- 52.35.Mw;
- Microinstabilities;
- Magnetic reconnection;
- Transport properties;
- Magnetohydrodynamics;
- Magnetohydrodynamic waves;
- Nonlinear phenomena: waves wave propagation and other interactions;
- Physics - Plasma Physics;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;
- Physics - Fluid Dynamics;
- Physics - Space Physics
- E-Print:
- Accepted for publication in Physics of Plasmas