Related papers: A catastrophe model for fast magnetic reconnection…
The rate of magnetic reconnection is of the utmost importance in a variety of processes because it controls, for example, the rate energy is released in solar flares, the speed of the Dungey convection cycle in Earth's magnetosphere, and…
This paper analytically investigates a series of two-dimensional MHD reconnection solutions over a wide variation of magnetic Reynolds number ($R_{em}^*$). A new series of solutions explains a continuous transition from Petschek-like fast…
We investigate a model of turbulent magnetic reconnection introduced by Higashimori, Yokoi and Hoshino (Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 255001) and show that the classic two-dimensional, steady-state Sweet-Parker and Petschek reconnection solutions…
We examine the effect of weak, small scale magnetic field structure on the rate of reconnection in a strongly magnetized plasma. This affects the rate of reconnection by reducing the transverse scale for reconnection flows, and by allowing…
Relativistic Sweet-Parker type magnetic reconnection is investigated by relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamic (RRMHD) simulations. As an initial setting, we assume anti-parallel magnetic fields and a spatially uniform resistivity. A…
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.…
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…
Magnetic reconnection, or the ability of the magnetic field lines that are frozen in plasma to change their topology, is a fundamental problem of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). We briefly examine the problem starting with the well-known…
A new regime of fast magnetic reconnection with an out-of-plane (guide) magnetic field is reported in which the key role is played by an electron pressure anisotropy described by the Chew-Goldberger-Low gyrotropic equations of state in the…
Fast magnetic reconnection powers explosive events throughout the universe, from gamma-ray bursts to solar flares. Despite its importance, the onset of astrophysical fast reconnection is the subject of intense debate and remains an open…
Magnetic reconnection in the partially ionized solar chromosphere is studied in 2.5-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations including radiative cooling and ambipolar diffusion. A Harris current sheet with and without a guide field is…
It is shown that a simple quasi-equilibrium analysis of a multi-component plasma can be harnessed to explain catastrophic energy transformations in astrophysical objects. We limit ourselves to the particular class of binary systems for…
In order to understand the nature of magnetic reconnection in ``free space'' which is free from any influence of external circumstances, I have studied the structure of spontaneous reconnection outflow using a shock tube approximation. 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 ($S$)…
Magnetic reconnection is a universal process that powers explosive energy release events such as solar flares, geomagnetic substorms, and some astrophysical jets. A characteristic feature of magnetic reconnection is the production of fast…
We discuss the model of magnetic field reconnection in the presence of turbulence introduced by us approximately ten years ago. The model does not require any plasma effects to be involved in order to make the reconnection fast. In fact, it…
Magnetic reconnection occurs when two plasmas having co-planar but anti-parallel magnetic fields meet. At the contact point, the field is locally annihilated and the magnetic energy can be released into the surrounding plasma. Theory and…
Within a MHD approach we find magnetic reconnection to progress in two entirely different ways. The first is well-known: the laminar Sweet-Parker process. But a second, completely different and chaotic reconnection process is possible. This…
We consider quasi-stationary two-dimensional magnetic reconnection in a partially ionized incompressible plasma. We find that when the plasma is weakly ionized and the collisions between the ions and the neutral particles are significant,…
Plasmoid instability is usually accounted for the onset of fast reconnection events observed in astrophysical plasmas. However, the measured reconnection rate from observations can be one order of magnitude higher than that derived from MHD…