Related papers: Fast magnetic reconnection and the ideal evolution…
Mathematics demonstrates that an ideally evolving magnetic field has an exponentially increasing sensitivity to non-ideal effects for all but truly exceptional evolutions. On a time scale that depends only logarithmically on the magnitude…
Fast magnetic reconnection is defined by the topology of the magnetic field lines changing on a timescale that is approximately an order of magnitude longer than the topology-conserving ideal-evolution timescale. Fast reconnection is an…
Magnetic fields without a direction of continuous symmetry have the generic feature that neighboring field lines exponentiate away from each other and become stochastic, hence the ideal constraint of preserving magnetic field line…
In laboratory and natural plasmas of practical interest, the spatial scale $\Delta_d$ at which magnetic field lines lose distinguishability differs enormously from the scale $a$ of magnetic reconnection across the field lines. In the solar…
Plasmoid theory uses two-coordinate models to explain fast magnetic reconnection, which occurs on an Alfv\'enic, not a resistive time scale, in plasmas that are evolving in the near-ideal limit. The primary application has been to…
Null and X-points are not themselves directly important to magnetic reconnection because distinguishable field lines do not approach them closely. Even in a collision-free plasma, magnetic field lines that approach each other on a scale…
When electron inertia is the only non-ideal effect in the evolution of a magnetic field $\vec{B}$, the field lines of $\vec{B}$ reconnect, but the lines of a related field $\vec{\mathcal{B}}$ do not. $\vec{\mathcal{B}} \equiv \vec{B} +…
We study the evolution equation for magnetic energy density for a non-relativistic magnetized plasma in the (Lagrangian) reference frame comoving with the electron bulk velocity. Analyzing the terms that arise due to the ideal electric…
The efficiency of energy conversion during magnetic reconnection is related to the reconnection rate. While the stable reconnection rate has been studied extensively, its growth between the time of reconnection onset and the peak…
Evolving magnetic fields are frequently embedded in plasmas that are turbulent. When the primary interest is in effects that are on a large scale compared to that of the turbulence, it is desirable to average over the turbulence to obtain…
Very strong magnetic fields can arise in non-central heavy-ion collisions at ultrarelativistic energies, which may not decay quickly in a conducting plasma. We carry out relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) simulations to study the…
We investigate the effect of large magnetic fields on the $2+1$ dimensional reduced-magnetohydrodynamical expansion of hot and dense nuclear matter produced in $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions. For the sake of simplicity, we…
The operation of ITER will require reliable simulations in order to avoid major damage to the device from disruptions. Disruptions are the sudden breakup of magnetic surfaces across the plasma volume -- a fast magnetic reconnection. This…
Magnetic field-lines in astrophysical plasmas are expected to be frozen-in at scales larger than the ion gyroradius. The rapid reconnection of magnetic flux structures with dimensions vastly larger than the gyroradius requires a breakdown…
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…
Magnetic reconnection in an antiparallel uniform Harris current sheet equilibrium, which is initially perturbed by a region of enhanced resistivity limited in all three dimensions, is investigated through compressible magnetohydrodynamic…
The traditional paradigm for magnetic field lines changing connections ignores magnetic field line chaos and requires an extremely large current density, $j_{max}\propto R_m$, flowing in thin sheets of thickness $1/R_m$, where $R_m$ is the…
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…
One of the main questions in magnetic reconnection is the origin of triggering behavior with on/off properties that accounts, once it is activated, for the fast magnetic energy conversion to kinetic and thermal energies at the heart of…
We present a new model for time evolution of fast magnetic reconnection in free space, which is characterized by self-similarity. Reconnection triggered by locally enhanced resistivity assumed at the center of the current sheet can…