Catastrophic onset of fast magnetic reconnection with a guide field

Journal Article · Tue May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2007 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2734948· OSTI ID:20975018

Cassak, P A; Drake, J F; Shay, M A ^[1]

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1. University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742 (United States)

It was recently shown that the slow (collisional) Sweet-Parker and the fast (collisionless) Hall magnetic reconnection solutions simultaneously exist for a wide range of resistivities; reconnection is bistable [Cassak, Shay, and Drake, Phys. Rev. Lett., 95, 235002 (2005)]. When the thickness of the dissipation region becomes smaller than a critical value, the Sweet-Parker solution disappears and fast reconnection ensues, potentially explaining how large amounts of magnetic free energy can accrue without significant release before the onset of fast reconnection. Two-fluid numerical simulations extending the previous results for anti-parallel reconnection (where the critical thickness is the ion skin depth) to component reconnection with a large guide field (where the critical thickness is the thermal ion Larmor radius) are presented. Applications to laboratory experiments of magnetic reconnection and the sawtooth crash are discussed.

• OSTI ID: 20975018
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 14; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
DEPTH
FREE ENERGY
IONS
LARMOR RADIUS
MAGNETIC RECONNECTION
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS
PLASMA
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PLASMA SIMULATION
SAWTOOTH OSCILLATIONS