The effect of shear flow on the resistive tearing instability

Journal Article · Thu Oct 30 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Journal of Plasma Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022377825100858· OSTI ID:3001891

Mallet, Alfred ^[1]; Eriksson, Stefan ^[2]; Swisdak, Marc ^[3]; Juno, James ^[4]

---

1. University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
2. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
3. Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
4. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)

We develop a new scaling theory for the resistive tearing mode instability of a current sheet with a strong shear flow across the layer. The growth rate decreases with increasing flow shear and is completely stabilized as the shear flow becomes Alfvénic: both in the constant-Ψ regime, as in previous results, but we also show that the growth rate is in fact suppressed more strongly in the nonconstant-Ψ regime. As a consequence, for sufficiently large flow shear, the maximum of the growth rate is always affected by the shear suppression, and the wavenumber at which this maximum growth rate is attained is an increasing function of the strength of the flow shear. These results may be important for the onset of reconnection in imbalanced MHD turbulence.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-09CH11466
• OSTI ID: 3001891
• Journal Information: Journal of Plasma Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Plasma Physics Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 91; ISSN 0022-3778; ISSN 1469-7807
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

astrophysical plasmas
plasma instabilities
space plasma physics