Related papers: Fast reconnection in relativistic plasmas: the mag…
We derive basic scaling equations for relativistic magnetic reconnection in the general case of asymmetric inflow conditions and obtain predictions for the outflow Lorentz factor and the reconnection rate. Kinetic Particle-in-Cell…
It is often asserted or implicitly assumed, without justification, that the results of two-dimensional investigations of plasma turbulence are applicable to the three-dimensional plasma environments of interest. A projection method is…
In many astrophysical environments the plasma is only partially ionized, and therefore the interaction of charged and neutral particles may alter both the triggering of reconnection and its subsequent dynamical evolution. We derive the…
We discuss the model of magnetic field reconnection in the presence of turbulence introduced by us approximately ten years ago. The model does not require any plasma effects to be involved in order to make the reconnection fast. In fact, it…
Turbulence in a conducting plasma can amplify seed magnetic fields in what is known as the turbulent, or small-scale, dynamo. The associated growth rate and emergent magnetic-field geometry depend sensitively on the material properties of…
Magnetic energy around compact objects often dominates over plasma rest mass, and its dissipation can power the object luminosity. We describe a dissipation mechanism which works faster than magnetic reconnection. The mechanism involves two…
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…
The magnetosphere of a rotating pulsar naturally develops a current sheet beyond the light cylinder (LC). Magnetic reconnection in this current sheet inevitably dissipates a nontrivial fraction of the pulsar spin-down power within a few LC…
Rapid and luminous flares of non-thermal radiation observed in blazars require an efficient mechanism of energy dissipation and particle acceleration in relativistic active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets. Particle acceleration in relativistic…
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…
The fate of relativistic pair beams produced in the intergalactic medium by very high energy emission from blazars remains controversial in the literature. The possible role of resonance beam plasma instability has been studied both…
The fluid dynamics community has found success in explaining both the onset and coherent structure formation in wall-bounded turbulence through examining transient growth and pseudoresonance. Whether similar effects are important in plasmas…
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental plasma process involving an exchange of magnetic energy to plasma kinetic energy through changes in the magnetic field topology. In many astrophysical plasmas magnetic reconnection plays a key role in…
We investigate the impact of turbulence on magnetic reconnection through high-resolution 3D magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations, spanning Lundquist numbers from $S=10^3$ to $10^6$. Building on Lazarian and Vishniac's (1999) theory,…
The stability of current sheets in collisionless relativistic pair plasma was studied via two-dimensional two-fluid relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations with vanishing internal friction between fluids. In particular, we investigated…
The plasmoid instability in visco-resistive current sheets is analyzed in both the linear and nonlinear regimes. The linear growth rate and the wavenumber are found to scale as $S^{1/4} {\left( {1 + {P_m}} \right)}^{-5/8}$ and $S^{3/8}…
Magnetic reconnection is an energy conversion process important in many astrophysical contexts including the Earth's magnetosphere, where the process can be investigated in-situ. Here we present the first encounter of a reconnection site by…
Realistic astrophysical environments are turbulent due to the extremely high Reynolds numbers. Therefore, the theories of reconnection intended for describing astrophysical reconnection should not ignore the effects of turbulence on…
Solar flares can release coronal magnetic energy explosively and may impact the safety of near-earth space environments. Their structures and properties on macroscale have been interpreted successfully by the generally-accepted…
We apply the general relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamics code {\tt BHAC} to perform a 2D study of the formation and evolution of a reconnection layer in between two merging magnetic flux tubes in Minkowski spacetime. Small-scale…