Related papers: Density Enhancements and Voids following Patchy Re…
It is proposed that reconnection would be a main mechanism governing the plasma processes on auroral time scales in the topside ionosphere/high-latitude magnetosphere transition. It occurs in the downward current region between two narrow…
Magnetic reconnection can develop spontaneously via the tearing instability, often invoked to explain disruptive instabilities in fusion devices, solar flares, the generation of periodic density disturbances at the tip of helmet streamers,…
The paper examines the prospects of using laser plasmas for studying novel regimes of the magnetic field line reconnection and charged particle acceleration. Basic features of plasma dynamics in the three-dimensional configurations relevant…
We study the linear and non-linear development of the Kruskal-Schwarzchild Instability in a relativisitically expanding striped wind. This instability is the generalization of Rayleigh-Taylor instability in the presence of a magnetic field.…
The shock structure of a plasmoid in magnetic reconnection in low-beta plasmas is investigated by two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Using a high-accuracy code with unprecedented resolution, shocks, discontinuities, and their…
In high-Lundquist-number plasmas, reconnection proceeds via onset of tearing, followed by a nonlinear phase during which plasmoids continuously form, merge, and are ejected from the current sheet (CS). This process is understood in fully…
Magnetic reconnection in the solar corona is thought to be unstable to the formation of multiple interacting plasmoids, and previous studies have shown that plasmoid dynamics can trigger MHD waves of different modes propagating outward from…
We present results from the first experimental study of strongly radiatively-cooled magnetic reconnection. Two exploding aluminum wire arrays, driven simultaneously by the Z machine ($I_{max} = 20 \, \text{MA}$, $t_{\text{rise}} = 300 \,…
Reconnection is the process by which magnetic fields in a conducting fluid change their topology. This process is essential for understanding a wide variety of astrophysical processes, including stellar and galactic dynamos and…
The process of magnetic reconnection when studied in Nature or when modeled in 3D simulations differs in one key way from the standard 2D paradigmatic cartoon: it is accompanied by much fluctuations in the electromagnetic fields and plasma…
Using 3D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, we study magnetic reconnection with the x-line being spatially confined in the current direction. We include thick current layers to prevent reconnection at two ends of a thin current sheet that…
During magnetically dominated relativistic reconnection, inflowing plasma depletes the initial relativistic pressure at the x-line and collisionless plasma heating inside the diffusion region is insufficient to overcome this loss. The…
Magnetic reconnection is best known from observations of the Sun where it causes solar flares. Observations estimate the reconnection rate a small, but non-negligible fraction of the Alfv\'en speed, so-called fast reconnection. Until…
This work presents a 2.5-dimensional simulation study of the instability of current-sheets located in a medium with a strong density variation along the current layer. The initial force-free configuration is observed to undergo a two-stage…
We describe a versatile pulsed-power driven platform for magnetic reconnection experiments, based on exploding wire arrays driven in parallel [Suttle, L. G. et al. PRL, 116, 225001]. This platform produces inherently magnetised plasma flows…
The relationship between a decaying plasma turbulence and proton fire hose instabilities in a slowly expanding plasma is investigated using three-dimensional (3-D) hybrid expanding box simulations. We impose an initial ambient magnetic…
To systematically stress a rotationally symmetric 3D magnetic null point by advecting the opposite footpoints of the spine axis in opposite directions. This stress eventually concentrates in the vicinity of the null point forming a local…
Magnetic reconnection is an important driving mechanism of many chromospheric phenomena, e.g., UV bursts and chromospheric jets. Information about magnetic field is indispensable for analyzing chromospheric magnetic reconnection, which is…
We perform two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of reconnection in magnetically-dominated pair plasmas subject to strong Compton cooling. Reconnection under such conditions operates in accretion disk coronae around black…
Plasmoid structures in fast reconnection in low-beta plasmas are investigated by two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations. A high-resolution shock-capturing code enables us to explore a variety of shock structures: vertical slow…