The scaling of forced collisionless reconnection

Journal Article · Wed Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 2008 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2992136· OSTI ID:21254518

Sullivan, Brian P; Rogers, Barrett N ^[1]

---

1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 (United States)

This paper presents two-fluid simulations of forced magnetic reconnection with finite electron inertia in a collisionless three-dimensional (3D) cube with periodic boundaries in all three directions. Comparisons are made to analogous two-dimensional (2D) simulations. Reconnection in this system is driven by a spatially localized forcing function that is added to the ion momentum equation inside the computational domain. Consistent with previous results in similar, but larger forced 2D simulations [B. Sullivan, B. N. Rogers, and M. A. Shay, Phys. Plasmas 12, 122312 (2005)], for sufficiently strong forcing the reconnection process is found to become Alfvenic in both 2D and 3D, i.e., the inflow velocity scales roughly like some fraction of the Alfven speed based on the upstream reconnecting magnetic field, and the system takes on a stable configuration with a dissipation region aspect ratio on the order of 0.15.

• OSTI ID: 21254518
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 15; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ALFVEN WAVES
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
MAGNETIC RECONNECTION
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
PLASMA SIMULATION
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS