Hall magnetohydrodynamic reconnection in the plasmoid unstable regime

Journal Article · Thu Sep 15 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3633473· OSTI ID:22043474

Baalrud, S D; Bhattacharjee, A; Huang, Y -M; Germaschewski, K ^[1]

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1. Center for Integrated Computation and Analysis of Reconnection and Turbulence, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824 (United States)

A set of reduced Hall magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations are used to evaluate the stability of large aspect ratio current sheets to the formation of plasmoids (secondary islands). Reconnection is driven by resistivity in this analysis, which occurs at the resistive skin depth d{sub {eta}}{identical_to}S{sub L}{sup -1/2}{radical}(L{nu}{sub A}/{gamma}), where S{sub L} is the Lundquist number, L, the length of the current sheet, {nu}{sub A,} the Alfven speed, and {gamma}, the growth rate. Modifications to a recent resistive MHD analysis [N. F. Loureiro et al., Phys. Plasmas 14, 100703 (2007)] arise when collisions are sufficiently weak that d{sub {eta}} is shorter than the ion skin depth d{sub i}{identical_to}c/{omega}{sub pi}. Secondary islands grow faster in this Hall MHD regime: the maximum growth rate scales as (d{sub i}/L){sup 6/13}S{sub L}{sup 7/13}{nu}{sub A}/L and the number of plasmoids as (d{sub i}/L){sup 1/13}S{sub L}{sup 11/26}, compared to S{sub L}{sup 1/4}{nu}{sub A}/L and S{sup 3/8}, respectively, in resistive MHD.

• OSTI ID: 22043474
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 18; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ALFVEN WAVES
ASPECT RATIO
BEAM-PLASMA SYSTEMS
COLLISIONS
EQUATIONS
IONS
MAGNETIC RECONNECTION
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MODIFICATIONS
PLASMA
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PLASMOIDS
STABILITY