Secondary instability in 3D magnetic reconnection. Interim report

Technical Report · Mon Apr 06 00:00:00 EDT 1992

OSTI ID:5170167

Dahlburg, R B; Antiochos, S K; Zang, T A

We consider the transition to turbulence in three dimensional reconnection of a magnetic neutral sheet. We find that the transition can occur via a three-step process. First, the sheet undergoes the usual tearing instability. Second, the tearing mode saturates to form a two-dimensional quasi-steady state. Third, this secondary equilibrium is itself unstable when it is perturbed by three-dimensional disturbances. Most of this paper is devoted to the analysis and simulation of the three-dimensional linear stability properties of the two-dimensional saturated tearing layer. The numerical simulations are performed with a semi-implicit, pseudospectral-Fourier collocation algorithm. We identify a three-dimensional secondary liner stability which grows on the ideal timescale. An examination of the modal energetics reveals that the largest energy transfer is from the mean field to the three-dimensional field, with the two-dimensional field acting as a catalyst.

• Research Organization: Naval Research Lab., Washington, DC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5170167
• Report Number(s): AD-A-248630/6/XAB; NRL/MR-4440-92-6966
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
MAGNETIC RECONNECTION
PLASMA INSTABILITY
ALGORITHMS
ASTROPHYSICS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ENERGY TRANSFER
LAYERS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
PLASMA SHEET
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS
TEARING INSTABILITY
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TURBULENCE
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
FLUID MECHANICS
HYDRODYNAMICS
INSTABILITY
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC
MECHANICS
PLASMA MACROINSTABILITIES
SIMULATION
661320* - Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena- (1992-)