Scalings pertaining to current sheet disruption mediated by the plasmoid instability

Huang, Yi-Min; Comisso, Luca; Bhattacharjee, Amitava

doi:10.1063/1.5110332

Title: Scalings pertaining to current sheet disruption mediated by the plasmoid instability

Journal Article · 22 September 2019 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5110332 · OSTI ID:1572706

^[1];

^[2]; Bhattacharjee, Amitava ^[3]

Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ (United States)
Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ (United States); Flatiron Inst., New York, NY (United States)

Analytic scaling relations are derived for a phenomenological model of the plasmoid instability in an evolving current sheet, including the effects of reconnection outflow. Two scenarios are considered, where the plasmoid instability can be triggered either by an injected initial perturbation or by the natural noise of the system (here referred to as the system noise). The two scenarios lead to different scaling relations because the initial noise decays when the linear growth of the plasmoid instability is not sufficiently fast to overcome the advection loss caused by the reconnection outflow, whereas the system noise represents the lowest level of fluctuations in the system. The leading order approximation for the current sheet width at disruption takes the form of a power law multiplied by a logarithmic factor, and from that, the scaling relations for the wavenumber and the linear growth rate of the dominant mode are obtained. When the effects of the outflow are neglected, the scaling relations agree, up to the leading order approximation, with previously derived scaling relations based on a principle of least time. As a result, the analytical scaling relations are validated with numerical solutions of the model.

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Research Organization:: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF); SDOE; Simons Foundation; USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0016470

OSTI ID:: 1572706

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 26; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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