Resistive tearing-mode instability in a current sheet with equilibrium viscous stagnation-point flow

An analysis is presented of linear stability against tearing modes of a current sheet formed between two oppositely magnetized plasmas forced towards each other in two-dimensional steady stagnation-point flow. The velocity vector in this flow is confined to planes perpendicular to the reversing component of the magnetic field. The unperturbed state is an exact resistive and viscous equilibrium in which the resistive diffusion outwards from the current sheet is exactly balanced by the inward motion associated with the stagnation-point flow. Thus the behaviour of the tearing mode can be examined even when the resistive diffusion time is comparable to or smaller than the growth time of the instability. The linear ordinary differential equation describing the mode structure is integrated numerically. For large Lundquist number S and viscous Reynolds number Re the Furth-Killeen-Rosenbluth scaling of the growth rate is recovered with excellent accuracy. The influence of the stagnation-point flow on the tearing mode is as follows: (i) long-wavelength perturbations are stabilized so that the unstable regime falls between a short-wavelength and a long-wavelength marginal state; (ii) for sufficiently low Lundquist number (S < 12.25) the current sheet is completely stable to tearing-mode perturbations; (iii) the presence of high viscosity reduces the growth rate of the tearing instability. This effect is more important at small wavelength. Finally, application of the results from this study to the problem of solar-wind plasma flow past the earth's magnetosphere is briefly discussed.