Related papers: Reconnection via the Tearing Instability
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…
In strongly magnetized astrophysical plasma systems, magnetic reconnection is believed to be a primary process during which explosive energy release and particle acceleration occur, leading to significant high-energy emission. Past years…
Magnetic reconnection, a plasma process converting magnetic energy to particle kinetic energy, is often invoked to explain magnetic energy releases powering high-energy flares in astrophysical sources including pulsar wind nebulae and black…
Reconnection is an important process that rules dissipation and diffusion of magnetic energy in plasmas. It is already clear that its rate is enhanced by turbulence, and that reconnection itself may increase its stochasticity, but the main…
Alfv\'enic-type turbulence in strongly magnetized, low-beta pair plasmas is investigated. A coupled set of equations for the evolution of the magnetic and flow potentials are derived, covering both fluid and kinetic scales. In the fluid…
Buneman instability is often driven in magnetic reconnection. Understanding how velocity shear in the beams driving the Buneman instability affects the growth and saturation of waves is relevant to turbulence, heating, and diffusion in…
We review the basic concepts of magnetic reconnection and propose a general framework for the astrophysical reconnection at large scales. Magnetic reconnection is the rearrangement of magnetic field topology. The conventional Sweet-Parker…
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 reconnection -- a fundamental plasma physics process, where magnetic field lines of opposite polarity annihilate -- is invoked in astrophysical plasmas as a powerful mechanism of nonthermal particle acceleration, able to explain…
The meeting of astrophysical plasmas and their magnetic fields creates many reconnection sites. We experimentally compare the reconnection rate of laser-driven magnetic reconnection when it takes place at a single site and multiple sites.…
Astrophysical fluids are generally turbulent and this preexisting turbulence must be taken into account for the models of magnetic reconnection which are attepmted to be applied to astrophysical, solar or heliospheric environments. In…
This is a brief account of our numerical study of the tearing mode reconnection. We demonstrate two main points. First, we show that, given sufficiently small resistivity, the Rutherford regime always exists; larger values of Delta' require…
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…
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…
A unified linear theory that includes forced reconnection as a particular case of Alfv\'en resonance is presented. We consider a generalized Taylor problem in which a sheared magnetic field is subject to a time-dependent boundary…
Astrophysical reconnection takes place in a turbulent medium. The turbulence in most cases is pre-existing, not caused by the reconnection itself. The model of magnetic reconnection in Lazarian & Vishniac (1999) predicts that in the…
In magnetized astrophysical outflows, the dissipation of field energy into particle energy via magnetic reconnection is often invoked to explain the observed non-thermal signatures. By means of two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell…
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…
Magnetic reconnection and turbulence are deeply intertwined in magnetohydrodynamic flows, yet how reconnection self-generates turbulence remains unclear. Using an ensemble of high-resolution three-dimensional direct numerical simulations of…
A new method for the determination of the Alfven wave energy generated during magnetic reconnection is introduced and used to analyze the results from two-dimensional MHD simulations. It is found that the regions with strong Alfven wave…