Related papers: Development of Tearing Instability in a Current Sh…
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…
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…
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…
In this paper we study the scaling relations for the triggering of the fast, or "ideal", tearing instability starting from equilibrium configurations relevant to astrophysical as well as laboratory plasmas that differ from the simple Harris…
The tearing mode instability is a key process for magnetic energy conversion in magnetohydrodynamics, once anti-parallel components are allowed to reconnect, leading to the formation of magnetic islands. It has been employed to explain…
It is well known that the nonlinear evolution of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence generates current sheets. In the solar wind turbulence, current sheets are frequently observed and they are believed to be an important pathway for the…
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,…
We study the time-dependent formation and evolution of a current sheet (CS) in a magnetized, collisionless, high-beta plasma using hybrid-kinetic particle-in-cell simulations. An initially tearing-stable Harris sheet is frozen into a…
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…
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 recent observations of Singh et al. (2012) have shown multiple plasma ejections and the intermittent nature of magnetic reconnection in the solar chromosphere, highlighting the need for fast reconnection to occur in highly collisional…
We investigate the influence of background shear flow on linear resistive tearing instabilities with Joule heating for two compressible plasma slab configurations: a Harris current sheet and a force-free, shearing magnetic field that varies…
We develop a new scaling theory for the resistive tearing mode instability of a current sheet with a strong shear flow across the layer. The growth rate decreases with increasing flow shear and is completely stabilized as the shear flow…
In this paper, we investigate the possibility of transient growth in the linear perturbation of current sheets. The resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) operator for a background field consisting of a current sheet is non-normal, meaning…
Recent studies have suggested that the tearing instability may play a significant role in magnetic turbulence. In this work, we review the theory of the magnetohydrodynamic tearing instability in the general case of an arbitrary tearing…
We study the tearing instability of a current sheet in a relativistic pair plasma with a power law distribution function. We first estimate the growth rate analytically and then confirm the analytical results by solving numerically the…
The plasmoid instability has revolutionized our understanding of magnetic reconnection in astrophysical environments. By preventing the formation of highly elongated reconnection layers, it is crucial in enabling the rapid energy conversion…
Combined tearing-thermal evolution plays an important role in the disruption of current sheets, and formation of cool condensations within the solar atmosphere. However, this has received limited attention to date. We numerically explore a…
Electron current layers, which form in various natural and laboratory plasmas, are susceptible to multiple instabilities, with tearing being a prominent instability driven by current gradients. Tearing is considered a potential mechanism…
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…