Spontaneously generated flux ropes in 3-D magnetic reconnection
Space Physics
2024-12-31 v1 Plasma Physics
Abstract
Magnetic reconnection is the key to explosive phenomena in the universe. The flux rope is crucial in three-dimensional magnetic reconnection theory and are commonly considered to be generated by secondary tearing mode instability. Here we show that the parallel electron flow moving toward the reconnection diffusion region can spontaneously form flux ropes. The electron flows form parallel current tubes in the separatrix region where the observational parameters suggest the tearing and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities are suppressed. The spontaneously formed flux ropes could indicate the importance of electron dynamics in a three-dimensional reconnection region.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2412.12717,
title = {Spontaneously generated flux ropes in 3-D magnetic reconnection},
author = {Shi-Chen Bai and Ruilong Guo and Yuchen Xiao and Quanqi Shi and Zhonghua Yao and Zuyin Pu and Wei-jie Sun and Alexander W. Degeling and Anmin Tian and I. Jonathan Rae and Shutao Yao and Qiu-Gang Zong and Suiyan Fu and Yude Bu and Christopher T. Russell and James L. Burch and Daniel J. Gershman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.12717},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
21 pages, 7 figures