Magnetic reconnection in a comparison of topology and helicities in two and three dimensional resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations

Journal Article · Sat Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4869333· OSTI ID:22251880

Huang, R. -Y. ^[1]

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1. Academia Sinica, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Theoretical Institute for Advanced Research in Astrophysics, P.O. Box 23-141, Taipei 106, Taiwan (China)

Through a direct comparison between numerical simulations in two and three dimensions, we investigate topological effects in reconnection. A simple estimate on increase in reconnection rate in three dimensions by a factor of √(2), when compared with a two-dimensional case, is confirmed in our simulations. We also show that both the reconnection rate and the fraction of magnetic energy in the simulations depend linearly on the height of the reconnection region. The degree of structural complexity of a magnetic field and the underlying flow is measured by current helicity and cross-helicity. We compare results in simulations with different computational box heights.

• OSTI ID: 22251880
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 3; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETIC RECONNECTION
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TOPOLOGY