Forced magnetic reconnection in the Hall limit

Steady state systems have been obtained in 2D Hall magnetic reconnection simulation studies [e.g., Huba and Rudakov, 2004]. For these cases, the inflow and outflow of plasma and magnetic field at the boundaries are determined by the dynamics of the reconnection region. However, in many space physics systems the boundary conditions are imposed, for example, the solar wind/magnetopause interaction. In this paper we present 2D and 3D magnetic reconnection studies of forced reconnection in the Hall limit where the inflow boundary conditions are prescribed. A subset of this work will focus on a generalization of the `Newton challenge' project [Birn et al., 2005]. Preliminary simulations suggest that steady state solutions are not obtained.

Huba, J.D. and L.I. Rudakov, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 175003, 2004. Birn et al., Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, L06105, doi: 10.1029 / 2004GL022058, 2005.

Research supported by NASA and ONR.