Eigenmodes of quasi-static magnetic islands in current sheet
- CAS Key Laboratory of Basic Plasma Physics, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China)
- State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, Center for Space Science and Applied Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080 (China)
As observation have shown, magnetic islands often appear before and/or after the onset of magnetic reconnections in the current sheets, and they also appear in the current sheets in the solar corona, Earth's magnetotail, and Earth's magnetopause. Thus, the existence of magnetic islands can affect the initial conditions in magnetic reconnection. In this paper, we propose a model of quasi-static magnetic island eigenmodes in the current sheet. This model analytically describes the magnetic field structures in the quasi-static case, which will provide a possible approach to reconstructing the magnetic structures in the current sheet via observation data. This model is self-consistent in the kinetic theory. Also, the distribution function of charged particles in the magnetic island can be calculated.
- OSTI ID:
- 22047119
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 12; Other Information: (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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