Formation of Plasmoid Chains in Fusion Relevant Plasmas
Plasma Physics
2015-02-20 v1
Abstract
The formation of plasmoid chains is explored for the first time within the context of the Taylor problem, in which magnetic reconnection is driven by a small amplitude boundary perturbation in a tearing-stable slab plasma equilibrium. Numerical simulations of a magnetohydrodynamical model of the plasma show that for very small plasma resistivity and viscosity, the linear inertial phase is followed by a nonlinear Sweet-Parker evolution, which gives way to a faster reconnection regime characterized by a chain of plasmoids instead of a slower Rutherford phase.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1412.0933,
title = {Formation of Plasmoid Chains in Fusion Relevant Plasmas},
author = {Luca Comisso and Daniela Grasso and François L. Waelbroeck},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1412.0933},
year = {2015}
}