Fast magnetic reconnection in the plasmoid-dominated regime
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
2015-05-19 v1 Plasma Physics
Abstract
A conceptual model of resistive magnetic reconnection via a stochastic plasmoid chain is proposed. The global reconnection rate is shown to be independent of the Lundquist number. The distribution of fluxes in the plasmoids is shown to be an inverse square law. It is argued that there is a finite probability of emergence of abnormally large plasmoids, which can disrupt the chain (and may be responsible for observable large abrupt events in solar flares and sawtooth crashes). A criterion for the transition from magnetohydrodynamic to collisionless regime is provided.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1008.3330,
title = {Fast magnetic reconnection in the plasmoid-dominated regime},
author = {D. A. Uzdensky and N. F. Loureiro and A. A. Schekochihin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1008.3330},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
4 pages, 1 figure