Related papers: The plasmoid instability during asymmetric inflow …
Fast reconnection operating in magnetically dominated plasmas is often invoked in models for magnetar giant flares, for magnetic dissipation in pulsar winds, or to explain the gamma-ray flares observed in the Crab nebula, hence its…
The dynamics of a plasmoid chain is studied with three dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations. The evolution of the system with and without a uniform guide field, whose strength is 1/3 the asymptotic magnetic field, is investigated. The…
The three-dimensional nature of plasmoid instabilities is studied using the reduced magnetohydrodynamic equations. For a Harris equilibrium with guide field, represented by $\vc{B}_o = B_{po} \tanh (x/\lambda) \hat{y} + B_{zo} \hat{z}$, a…
The relationship between a decaying strong turbulence and kinetic instabilities in a slowly expanding plasma is investigated using two-dimensional (2-D) hybrid expanding box simulations. We impose an initial ambient magnetic field…
Magnetic reconnection, breaking and reorganization of magnetic field topology, is a fundamental process for rapid release of magnetic energy into plasma particles that occurs pervasively throughout the universe. In most natural…
We show that under very general conditions, cluster plasmas threaded by weak magnetic fields are subject to very fast growing plasma instabilities driven by the anisotropy of the plasma pressure (viscous stress) with respect to the local…
The filamentation instability triggered when two counter streaming plasma shells overlap appears to be the main mechanism by which collisionless shocks are generated. It has been known for long that a flow aligned magnetic field can…
Relativistic magnetic reconnection studies have focused on symmetric configurations so far, where the upstream plasma has identical properties on each side of the layer. The boundary layer between a relativistic jet and an accretion flow…
Depending on the physical conditions involved the beam plasma systems may reveal new unstable regimes triggered by the wave instabilities of different nature. We show through linear theory and numerical simulations the existence of an…
Global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities are investigated in a computationally tractable two-dimensional model of the solar tachocline. The model's differential rotation yields stability in the absence of a magnetic field, but if a…
We conduct a multiparametric study of driven magnetic reconnection relevant to recent experiments on colliding magnetized laser produced plasmas using particle-in-cell simulations. Varying the background plasma density, plasma resistivity,…
In this work, the development of two-dimensional current sheets with respect to tearing-modes, in collisionless plasmas with a strong guide field, is analysed. During their non-linear evolution, these thin current sheets can become unstable…
Plasmoid-driven magnetic reconnection in elongated current sheets is suspected to be an ubiquitous phenomenon in space and astrophysical plasmas, but the mechanisms driving its onset and dynamics are still debated. Deciphering the physical…
We describe magnetic reconnection experiments using a new, pulsed-power driven experimental platform in which the inflows are super-sonic but sub-Alfv\'enic.The intrinsically magnetised plasma flows are long lasting, producing a…
The plasmoid instability may lead to fast magnetic reconnection through long current sheets(CS). It is well known that large-Reynolds-number plasmas easily become turbulent. We address the question whether turbulence enhances the energy…
Simulations of relativistic plasmas traditionally focus on the dynamics of two-species mixtures of charged particles under the influence of external magnetic fields and those generated by particle currents. However, the extreme conditions…
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.…
Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence regulates the transfer of energy from large to small scales in many astrophysical systems, including the solar atmosphere. We perform three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations with unprecedentedly…
The plasma {\beta} (the ratio of the plasma pressure to the magnetic pressure) of a system can have a large effect on its dynamics as high {\beta} enhances the effects of pressure anisotropies. We investigate the effects of {\beta} in a…
We investigate the instability of purely poloidal magnetic fields in nonrotating neutron stars by means of three-dimensional general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations, extending the work presented in Ciolfi et al. (2011). Our…