Reconnection of coalescing magnetic islands
- Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, 251 Mercer Street, New York, New York 10012 (United States)
The dynamics of magnetic reconnection in the framework of two-dimensional incompressible magnetohydrodynamics is studied numerically. The case of a doubly periodic array of magnetic islands where coalescence of neighboring islands occurs due to self-consistent magnetic forces is investigated. To adequately resolve the current sheets which evolve in between two islands adaptive structured mesh methods are applied. At the onset of the reconnection process the kinetic energy rises and drops rapidly and afterward settles into an oscillatory phase. The time scale of the magnetic reconnection process is not affected by these fast events but consistent with the Sweet{endash}Parker model of stationary reconnection. When the spatial extension of the system is enlarged it undergoes a sequence of merging processes and unstable equilibria towards a large-scale pattern of magnetic islands. During this process the frequency of the oscillations in the kinetic energy is found to scale with the island size. {copyright} {ital 1999 American Institute of Physics.}
- OSTI ID:
- 295518
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 6, Issue 2; Other Information: PBD: Feb 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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