Visco-resistive magnetic reconnection due to steady inertialess flows. Part 1. Exact analytical solutions

Magnetic reconnection at an X-type neutral point of a two-dimensional magnetic field is studied in an incompressible viscous resistive fluid whose flow is assumed to be slow enough that its inertia is negligible. In both the ideal and resistive magnetohydrodynamic approximations current singularities appear at the X-point and along the separatrices. It is shown here analytically that the combined effect of viscosity and resistivity can resolve these singularities with the flow crossing the separatrices. A wide class of exact solutions describing the structure of the flow and current density distribution is found. The results suggest that reconnection may occur with localized distributions of strong current density restricted to finite regions.