A saddle-node bifurcation model of magnetic reconnection onset
- Department of Physics, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716 (United States)
- IREAP, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742 (United States)
It was recently shown that magnetic reconnection exhibits bistability, where the Sweet-Parker (collisional) and Hall (collisionless) reconnection solutions are both attainable for the same set of system parameters. Here, a dynamical model based on saddle-node bifurcations is presented which reproduces the slow to fast transition. It is argued that the properties of the dynamical model are a result of the Hall effect and the dispersive physics associated with it. Evidence from resistive two-fluid and Hall magnetohydrodynamics simulations are presented that show that the time evolution agrees with the dynamical model, the outflow speed is correlated with the dispersive physics due to the Hall effect, and bistability persists in the absence of electron inertia.
- OSTI ID:
- 21378014
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 17; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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