Related papers: Plasmoid Instability in Forming Current Sheets
We investigate analytically and numerically the semi-collisional regime of the plasmoid instability, defined by the inequality $\delta_{SP} \gg \rho_s \gg \delta_{in}$, where $\delta_{SP}$ is the width of a Sweet-Parker current sheet,…
The recent realization that Sweet-Parker current sheets are violently unstable to the secondary tearing (plasmoid) instability implies that such current sheets cannot occur in real systems. This suggests that, in order to understand the…
Thin current sheets in systems of large size that exceed a critical value of the Lundquist number are unstable to a super-Alfvenic tearing instability. The scaling of the growth rate of the fastest growing instability with respect to the…
We study the linear and nonlinear evolution of the tearing instability on thin current sheets by means of two-dimensional numerical simulations, within the framework of compressible, resistive magnetohydrodynamics. In particular we analyze…
Magnetic reconnection is thought to be the dynamical mechanism underlying many explosive phenomena observed both in space and in the laboratory, though the question of how fast magnetic reconnection is triggered in such high Lundquist ($S$)…
The evolution of current sheets in accretion flows undergoing magnetorotational instability (MRI) is examined through two and three dimensional numerical modelling of the resistive MHD equations in global cylindrical geometry. With an…
In this paper, the temporal evolution of 3-dimensional relativistic current sheets in Poynting-dominated plasma is studied for the first time. Over the past few decades, a lot of efforts have been conducted on studying the evolution of…
Magnetic reconnection in laboratory, space and astrophysical plasmas is often invoked to explain explosive energy release and particle acceleration. However, the timescales involved in classical models within the macroscopic MHD regime are…
Sweet-Parker current sheets in high Lundquist number plasmas are unstable to tearing, suggesting they will not form in physical systems. Understanding magnetic reconnection thus requires study of the stability of a current sheet as it…
This paper studies the growth rate of reconnection instabilities in thin current sheets in the presence of both resistivity and viscosity. In a previous paper, Pucci and Velli (2014), it was argued that at sufficiently high Lundquist number…
Classical MHD reconnection theories, both the stationary Sweet-Parker model and the tearing instability, are known to provide rates which are too slow to explain the observations. However, a recent analysis has shown that there exists a…
Magnetic reconnection can explosively release magnetic energy when opposing magnetic fields merge and annihilate through a current sheet, driving plasma jets and accelerating non-thermal particle populations to high energy, in plasmas…
Tearing instability, also known as plasmoid instability, is an effective mechanism to speed up magnetic reconnection process, working in a wide range of magnetized plasma systems with different spatial scales, ionization degrees, and…
A fundamental problem of forced magnetic reconnection has been solved taking into account the plasmoid instability of thin reconnecting current sheets. In this problem, the reconnection is driven by a small amplitude boundary perturbation…
In this paper, we investigate the evolution of the plasmoid-chain in a Poynting-dominated plasma. We model the relativistic current sheet with cold background plasma using the relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamic approximation, and…
Magnetic reconnection may be the fundamental process allowing energy stored in magnetic fields to be released abruptly, solar flares and coronal mass ejection (CME) being archetypal natural plasma examples. Magnetic reconnection is much too…
Theoretical studies of the plasmoid instability generally assume that the reconnecting magnetic fields are symmetric. We relax this assumption by performing two-dimensional resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the plasmoid…
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental physical process converting magnetic energy into not only plasma energy but also particle energy in various astrophysical phenomena. In this letter, we show a unique dataset of a solar flare where…
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.…
The role of a super-Alfv\'enic plasmoid instability in the onset of fast reconnection is studied by means of the largest Hall magnetohydrodynamics simulations to date, with system sizes up to $10^{4}$ ion skin depths ($d_{i}$). It is…