Energetics of forced magnetic reconnection in a visco-resistive plasma

Journal Article · Fri Jul 15 04:00:00 EDT 2005 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1938587· OSTI ID:20764418

Bian, Nicolas; Vekstein, Grigory ^[1]

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1. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester M60 1QD (United Kingdom)

The rate of energy dissipation provided by the ongoing magnetic reconnection in a force-free magnetic field is investigated in the framework of visco-resistive magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). It is shown that viscous effects are important even under small magnetic Prandtl number P{sub m}{identical_to}{nu}/{eta}, namely for P{sub m}>S{sup -2/5}, where {nu} and {eta} are the plasma viscosity and resistivity, respectively, and S>>1 is the Lundquist number of a highly conducting plasma. Various regimes of plasma heating, which are determined by the nondimensional parameters P{sub m}, S, and {omega}{tau}{sub A}, are identified, where {tau}{sub A} is the Alfven transit time of the magnetic configuration and {omega} is the frequency of an external driver.

• OSTI ID: 20764418
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 12; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ALFVEN WAVES
CHARGED-PARTICLE TRANSPORT
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ENERGY LOSSES
FORCE-FREE MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETIC RECONNECTION
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
PLASMA
PLASMA HEATING
PRANDTL NUMBER
VISCOSITY