Related papers: System Size Dependence of Collisionless Reconnecti…
A catastrophe model for the onset of fast magnetic reconnection is presented that suggests why plasma systems with magnetic free energy remain apparently stable for long times and then suddenly release their energy. For a given set of…
Recent calculations by Quataert et al. (2002) found that the growth rates of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in a collisionless plasma can differ significantly from those calculated using MHD. This can be important in hot accretion…
We develop a first-principles scaling theory of the spreading of three-dimensional (3D) magnetic reconnection of finite extent in the out of plane direction. This theory addresses systems with or without an out of plane (guide) magnetic…
Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous plasma process that transforms magnetic energy into particle energy during eruptive events throughout the universe. Reconnection not only converts energy during solar flares and geomagnetic substorms…
A recently published, new analysis of current sheets updated the classic Harris 1D static solution by considering multiple classes of charged particle trajectories in a generalized dynamic current sheet. It used a 1D PIC simulation to…
In a magnetized, collisionless plasma, the magnetic moment of the constituent particles is an adiabatic invariant. An increase in the magnetic-field strength in such a plasma thus leads to an increase in the thermal pressure perpendicular…
We report for the first time the intrinsically three-dimensional (3D) geometry of the magnetic reconnection process induced by ballooning instability in a generalized Harris sheet. The spatial distribution and structure of the…
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…
Contrary to all the 2D models, where the reconnection x-line extent is infinitely long, we study magnetic reconnection in the opposite limit. The scaling of the average reconnection rate and outflow speed are modeled as a function of the…
This paper investigates Magnetic Reynolds number dependence of the ``self-similar evolution model'' (Nitta et al. 2001) of fast magnetic reconnection. I focused my attention on the flow structure inside and around the reconnection outflow,…
Magnetic reconnection is a process that converts magnetic energy into plasma energy by changing the magnetic field line topology. The outstanding question is why the reconnection rate is $\mathcal{O}(0.01 - 0.1)$ in many astrophysical…
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 ($S$)…
Magnetic reconnection in partially ionized plasmas is a ubiquitous phenomenon spanning the range from laboratory to intergalactic scales, yet it remains poorly understood and relatively little studied. Here, we present results from a…
We study the statistics of dynamical quantities associated with magnetic reconnection events embedded in a sea of strong background magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence using direct numerical simulations. We focus on the relationship of the…
We performed numerical simulations of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics with uniform resistivity to investigatethe occurrence of magnetic reconnection in a split-monopole magnetic field around a Schwarzschild black hole. We found…
Current sheets thinner than the ion inertial length are unstable to the tearing instability and will develop magnetic islands that grow due to magnetic reconnection. We investigate whether the growth of magnetic islands in a current sheet…
We report simulation results for turbulent magnetic reconnection obtained using a newly developed Reynolds-averaged magnetohydrodynamics model. We find that the initial Harris current sheet develops in three ways, depending on the strength…
High-energy astrophysical systems and compact objects are frequently modeled using ideal relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) or force-free electrodynamic (FFE) simulations, with the underlying assumption that the discretisation from the…
Magnetic reconnection is explored on the Terrestrial Reconnection Experiment (TREX) for asymmetric inflow conditions and in a configuration where the absolute rate of reconnection is set by an external drive. Magnetic pileup enhances the…
The main subject of my talk is the question: in what kind of astrophysical systems magnetic reconnection is interesting and/or important? To address this question, I first put forward three general criteria for selecting the relevant…