Collisionless tearing instability of a bi-Maxwellian neutral sheet with exact particle orbits
Abstract
The tearing instability of a neutral sheet may be important to reconnection in the magnetosphere and elsewhere. The use of a bi-Maxwellian Harris equilibrium is broadly applicable to the physical environment and allows a continuous variation from isotropic situations. The integro-differential equation describing the linear tearing instability in the bi-Maxwellian neutral sheet is solved without approximating the particle orbits. Results of this calculation are presented. Comparison between the exact solution and the 3-region approximation motivates the piecewise-straight-line approximation, a simplification which allows faster solution of the integro-differential equation, yet retains the important features of the exact solution.
- Publication:
-
Naval Research Lab. Report
- Pub Date:
- March 1989
- Bibcode:
- 1989nrl..reptQ....B
- Keywords:
-
- Magnetohydrodynamic Stability;
- Magnetospheric Instability;
- Neutral Particles;
- Neutral Sheets;
- Orbits;
- Tearing;
- Anisotropy;
- Differential Equations;
- Integral Equations;
- Isotropism;
- Precision;
- Temperature;
- Variations;
- Geophysics