Hall MHD reconnection in cometary magnetotail

Journal Article · Mon Oct 31 04:00:00 EST 2005 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2134644· OSTI ID:20726793

Jovanovic, Dusan ^[1]; Shukla, Padma Kant ^[2]; Morfill, Gregor ^[3]

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1. Institute of Physics, P. O. Box 57, 11001 Belgrade (Serbia and Montenegro)
2. Institut fuer Theoretische Physik IV, Fakultaet fuer Physik und Astronomie, Ruhr-UniverAIP confrence style sitaet Bochum, D-44780 Bochum (Germany)
3. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik, D-85740 Garching (Germany)

The fine structure of cometary tails (swirls, loops and blobs) is studied in the framework of resistive magnetic reconnection without a guide field in a dusty plasma. For a high-beta plasma ({beta} {approx} 1) consisting of electrons, ions, and immobile dust grains, a two-fluid description is used to study electromagnetic perturbations with the frequency below {omega}i, propagating at an arbitrary angle, and including the effects of Hall current. A zero-order current associated with the anti-parallel magnetic configuration may exist even in the limit of zero plasma temperature in a dusty plasma due to a symmetry breaking between electrons and ions by dust grains that yields an E-vector x B-vector current. In the perturbed state, a new linear electromagnetic mode is found in dusty plasma which is evanescent below the Rao cut-off frequency and has the characteristic wavelength comparable to the ion skin depth, which enables the reconnection at short spatial scales. The role of the dust is found to be twofold, yielding a new mode outside of the current sheet and altering the continuity conditions at its edge by an inhomogeneous Doppler shift associated with the E-vector x B-vector current.

• OSTI ID: 20726793
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 799; ISSN APCPCS; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
DISTURBANCES
DOPPLER EFFECT
DUSTS
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
ELECTRONS
FINE STRUCTURE
FLUIDS
HIGH-BETA PLASMA
ION TEMPERATURE
IONS
MAGNETIC RECONNECTION
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MAGNETOTAIL
SYMMETRY BREAKING
VECTORS
WAVELENGTHS