Plasmoid instability in high-Lundquist-number magnetic reconnection
Abstract
Our understanding of magnetic reconnection in resistive magnetohydrodynamics has gone through a fundamental change in recent years. The conventional wisdom is that magnetic reconnection mediated by resistivity is slow in laminar high Lundquist (S) plasmas, constrained by the scaling of the reconnection rate predicted by Sweet-Parker theory. However, recent studies have shown that when S exceeds a critical value ~104, the Sweet-Parker current sheet is unstable to a super-Alfvénic plasmoid instability, with a linear growth rate that scales as S1/4. In the fully developed statistical steady state of two-dimensional resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations, the normalized average reconnection rate is approximately 0.01, nearly independent of S, and the distribution function f(ψ) of plasmoid magnetic flux ψ follows a power law f(ψ)~ψ-1. When Hall effects are included, the plasmoid instability may trigger onset of Hall reconnection even when the conventional criterion for onset is not satisfied. The rich variety of possible reconnection dynamics is organized in the framework of a phase diagram.
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
- Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States); Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1565005
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FG02-07ER46372
- Resource Type:
- Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physics of Plasmas
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 20; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; Physics
Citation Formats
Huang, Yi-Min, and Bhattacharjee, A. Plasmoid instability in high-Lundquist-number magnetic reconnection. United States: N. p., 2013.
Web. doi:10.1063/1.4802941.
Huang, Yi-Min, & Bhattacharjee, A. Plasmoid instability in high-Lundquist-number magnetic reconnection. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4802941
Huang, Yi-Min, and Bhattacharjee, A. 2013.
"Plasmoid instability in high-Lundquist-number magnetic reconnection". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4802941. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1565005.
@article{osti_1565005,
title = {Plasmoid instability in high-Lundquist-number magnetic reconnection},
author = {Huang, Yi-Min and Bhattacharjee, A.},
abstractNote = {Our understanding of magnetic reconnection in resistive magnetohydrodynamics has gone through a fundamental change in recent years. The conventional wisdom is that magnetic reconnection mediated by resistivity is slow in laminar high Lundquist (S) plasmas, constrained by the scaling of the reconnection rate predicted by Sweet-Parker theory. However, recent studies have shown that when S exceeds a critical value ~104, the Sweet-Parker current sheet is unstable to a super-Alfvénic plasmoid instability, with a linear growth rate that scales as S1/4. In the fully developed statistical steady state of two-dimensional resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations, the normalized average reconnection rate is approximately 0.01, nearly independent of S, and the distribution function f(ψ) of plasmoid magnetic flux ψ follows a power law f(ψ)~ψ-1. When Hall effects are included, the plasmoid instability may trigger onset of Hall reconnection even when the conventional criterion for onset is not satisfied. The rich variety of possible reconnection dynamics is organized in the framework of a phase diagram.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4802941},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1565005},
journal = {Physics of Plasmas},
issn = {1070-664X},
number = 5,
volume = 20,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Apr 29 00:00:00 EDT 2013},
month = {Mon Apr 29 00:00:00 EDT 2013}
}
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:
Works referenced in this record:
Magnetic Reconnection in Astrophysical and Laboratory Plasmas
journal, September 2009
- Zweibel, Ellen G.; Yamada, Masaaki
- Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 47, Issue 1
Magnetic reconnection
journal, March 2010
- Yamada, Masaaki; Kulsrud, Russell; Ji, Hantao
- Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 82, Issue 1
The production of high energy particles in solar flares
journal, September 1958
- Sweet, P. A.
- Il Nuovo Cimento, Vol. 8, Issue S2
Sweet's mechanism for merging magnetic fields in conducting fluids
journal, December 1957
- Parker, E. N.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 62, Issue 4
Geospace Environmental Modeling (GEM) Magnetic Reconnection Challenge
journal, March 2001
- Birn, J.; Drake, J. F.; Shay, M. A.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 106, Issue A3
The role of plasma instabilities in the origin of solar flares
journal, August 1963
- Jaggi, R. K.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 68, Issue 15
Multiple X line reconnection: 1. A criterion for the transition from a single X line to a multiple X line reconnection
journal, January 1986
- Lee, L. C.; Fu, Z. F.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 91, Issue A6
Magnetic reconnection via current sheets
journal, January 1986
- Biskamp, D.
- Physics of Fluids, Vol. 29, Issue 5
Fast magnetic reconnection with small shock angles
journal, January 1992
- Yan, M.; Lee, L. C.; Priest, E. R.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 97, Issue A6
Plasmoid-induced-reconnection and fractal reconnection
journal, June 2001
- Shibata, Kazunari; Tanuma, Syuniti
- Earth, Planets and Space, Vol. 53, Issue 6
Self-Feeding Turbulent Magnetic Reconnection on Macroscopic Scales
journal, June 2008
- Lapenta, Giovanni
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 23
X‐Ray Plasma Ejection Associated with an Impulsive Flare on 1992 October 5: Physical Conditions of X‐Ray Plasma Ejection
journal, June 1998
- Ohyama, Masamitsu; Shibata, Kazunari
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 499, Issue 2
Dynamical and Physical Properties of a Post–Coronal Mass Ejection Current Sheet
journal, September 2003
- Ko, Yuan‐Kuen; Raymond, John C.; Lin, Jun
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 594, Issue 2
Downflow Motions Associated with Impulsive Nonthermal Emissions Observed in the 2002 July 23 Solar Flare
journal, March 2004
- Asai, Ayumi; Yokoyama, Takaaki; Shimojo, Masumi
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 605, Issue 1
Determination of Low‐Energy Cutoffs and Total Energy of Nonthermal Electrons in a Solar Flare on 2002 April 15
journal, June 2005
- Sui, Linhui; Holman, Gordon D.; Dennis, Brian R.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 626, Issue 2
Plasmoids in reconnecting current sheets: Solar and terrestrial contexts compared: PLASMOIDS IN RECONNECTING CURRENT SHEETS
journal, November 2008
- Lin, J.; Cranmer, S. R.; Farrugia, C. J.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 113, Issue A11
Multiple Plasmoid Ejections and Associated hard X-Ray Bursts in the 2000 November 24 Flare
journal, February 2010
- Nishizuka, N.; Takasaki, H.; Asai, A.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 711, Issue 2
Evidence of an extended electron current sheet and its neighboring magnetic island during magnetotail reconnection: EXTENDED ELECTRON CURRENT SHEET DURING RECONNECTION
journal, December 2008
- Chen, L. -J.; Bessho, N.; Lefebvre, B.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 113, Issue A12
Observation of energetic electrons within magnetic islands
journal, November 2007
- Chen, L. -J.; Bhattacharjee, A.; Puhl-Quinn, P. A.
- Nature Physics, Vol. 4, Issue 1
A Reconnecting Current Sheet Imaged in a Solar Flare
journal, October 2010
- Liu, Rui; Lee, Jeongwoo; Wang, Tongjiang
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 723, Issue 1
Spontaneous Current-Layer Fragmentation and Cascading Reconnection in Solar Flares. ii. Relation to Observations
journal, March 2011
- Bárta, Miroslav; Büchner, Jörg; Karlický, Marian
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 730, Issue 1
Instability of current sheets and formation of plasmoid chains
journal, October 2007
- Loureiro, N. F.; Schekochihin, A. A.; Cowley, S. C.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 14, Issue 10
Fast reconnection in high-Lundquist-number plasmas due to the plasmoid Instability
journal, November 2009
- Bhattacharjee, A.; Huang, Yi-Min; Yang, H.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 16, Issue 11
Turbulent magnetic reconnection in two dimensions
journal, October 2009
- Loureiro, N. F.; Uzdensky, D. A.; Schekochihin, A. A.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Vol. 399, Issue 1
Scaling of Sweet–Parker reconnection with secondary islands
journal, December 2009
- Cassak, P. A.; Shay, M. A.; Drake, J. F.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 16, Issue 12
Scaling laws of resistive magnetohydrodynamic reconnection in the high-Lundquist-number, plasmoid-unstable regime
journal, June 2010
- Huang, Yi-Min; Bhattacharjee, A.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 17, Issue 6
Fast Magnetic Reconnection in the Plasmoid-Dominated Regime
journal, December 2010
- Uzdensky, D. A.; Loureiro, N. F.; Schekochihin, A. A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 23
Transition from collisional to kinetic regimes in large-scale reconnection layers
journal, August 2009
- Daughton, W.; Roytershteyn, V.; Albright, B. J.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 6
Comparison of Secondary Islands in Collisional Reconnection to Hall Reconnection
journal, July 2010
- Shepherd, L. S.; Cassak, P. A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 1
Onset of fast reconnection in Hall magnetohydrodynamics mediated by the plasmoid instability
journal, July 2011
- Huang, Yi-Min; Bhattacharjee, A.; Sullivan, Brian P.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 7
Catastrophe Model for Fast Magnetic Reconnection Onset
journal, November 2005
- Cassak, P. A.; Shay, M. A.; Drake, J. F.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 95, Issue 23
Formation of Plasmoid Chains in Magnetic Reconnection
journal, September 2009
- Samtaney, R.; Loureiro, N. F.; Uzdensky, D. A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 10
Linear plasmoid instability of thin current sheets with shear flow
journal, May 2010
- Ni, Lei; Germaschewski, Kai; Huang, Yi-Min
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 17, Issue 5
Magnetic reconnection and stochastic plasmoid chains in high-Lundquist-number plasmas
journal, April 2012
- Loureiro, N. F.; Samtaney, R.; Schekochihin, A. A.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 4
Effects of plasma β on the plasmoid instability
journal, July 2012
- Ni, Lei; Ziegler, Udo; Huang, Yi-Min
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 7
Nonlinear growth of the tearing mode
journal, January 1973
- Rutherford, P. H.
- Physics of Fluids, Vol. 16, Issue 11
A statistical model of magnetic islands in a current layer
journal, January 2010
- Fermo, R. L.; Drake, J. F.; Swisdak, M.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 17, Issue 1
Comparison of a statistical model for magnetic islands in large current layers with Hall MHD simulations and Cluster FTE observations: MAGNETIC ISLANDS
journal, September 2011
- Fermo, R. L.; Drake, J. F.; Swisdak, M.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 116, Issue A9
Electron acceleration from contracting magnetic islands during reconnection
journal, October 2006
- Drake, J. F.; Swisdak, M.; Che, H.
- Nature, Vol. 443, Issue 7111
Distribution of Plasmoids in High-Lundquist-Number Magnetic Reconnection
journal, December 2012
- Huang, Yi-Min; Bhattacharjee, A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 26
On the onset of the plasmoid instability
journal, September 2012
- Baty, H.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 9
Coalescence of magnetic islands, sloshing, and the pressure problem
journal, March 2006
- Knoll, D. A.; Chacón, L.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 13, Issue 3
Flux Pileup in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection: Bursty Interaction of Large Flux Ropes
journal, July 2011
- Karimabadi, H.; Dorelli, J.; Roytershteyn, V.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 2
Nonlinear studies of m =1 modes in high‐temperature plasmas
journal, November 1992
- Aydemir, A. Y.
- Physics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics, Vol. 4, Issue 11
Fast impulsive reconnection and current sheet intensification due to electron pressure gradients in semi-collisional plasmas
journal, June 1996
- Ma, Z. W.; Bhattacharjee, A.
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 23, Issue 13
Whistler-mediated magnetic reconnection in large systems: Magnetic flux pileup and the formation of thin current sheets
journal, January 2003
- Dorelli, John C.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 108, Issue A3
Impulsive Magnetic Reconnection in the Earth's Magnetotail and the Solar Corona
journal, September 2004
- Bhattacharjee, A.
- Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 42, Issue 1
Catastrophic onset of fast magnetic reconnection with a guide field
journal, May 2007
- Cassak, P. A.; Drake, J. F.; Shay, M. A.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 14, Issue 5
Phase diagram for magnetic reconnection in heliophysical, astrophysical, and laboratory plasmas
journal, November 2011
- Ji, Hantao; Daughton, William
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 11
Emerging Parameter Space Map of Magnetic Reconnection in Collisional and Kinetic Regimes
journal, March 2011
- Daughton, William; Roytershteyn, Vadim
- Space Science Reviews, Vol. 172, Issue 1-4
A saddle-node bifurcation model of magnetic reconnection onset
journal, June 2010
- Cassak, P. A.; Shay, M. A.; Drake, J. F.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 17, Issue 6
On the question of hysteresis in Hall magnetohydrodynamic reconnection
journal, November 2010
- Sullivan, Brian P.; Bhattacharjee, A.; Huang, Yi-Min
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 17, Issue 11
Hall magnetohydrodynamic reconnection in the plasmoid unstable regime
journal, September 2011
- Baalrud, S. D.; Bhattacharjee, A.; Huang, Y. -M.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 9
Role of electron physics in the development of turbulent magnetic reconnection in collisionless plasmas
journal, April 2011
- Daughton, W.; Roytershteyn, V.; Karimabadi, H.
- Nature Physics, Vol. 7, Issue 7
Reduced magnetohydrodynamic theory of oblique plasmoid instabilities
journal, February 2012
- Baalrud, S. D.; Bhattacharjee, A.; Huang, Y. -M.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 2
Reconnection in a Weakly Stochastic Field
journal, June 1999
- Lazarian, A.; Vishniac, Ethan T.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 517, Issue 2
Numerical Tests of fast Reconnection in Weakly Stochastic Magnetic Fields
journal, June 2009
- Kowal, Grzegorz; Lazarian, A.; Vishniac, E. T.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 700, Issue 1
Fast Magnetic Reconnection and Spontaneous Stochasticity
journal, November 2011
- Eyink, Gregory L.; Lazarian, A.; Vishniac, E. T.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 743, Issue 1
Relation of astrophysical turbulence and magnetic reconnection
journal, January 2012
- Lazarian, A.; Eyink, Gregory L.; Vishniac, E. T.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 1
The Fast Collisionless Reconnection Condition and the Self‐Organization of Solar Coronal Heating
journal, December 2007
- Uzdensky, Dmitri A.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 671, Issue 2
Self-Regulation of Solar Coronal Heating Process via the Collisionless Reconnection Condition
journal, December 2007
- Uzdensky, Dmitri A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 99, Issue 26
From Solar and Stellar Flares to Coronal Heating: Theory and Observations of How Magnetic Reconnection Regulates Coronal Conditions
journal, March 2008
- Cassak, P. A.; Mullan, D. J.; Shay, M. A.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 676, Issue 1
Magnetic Reconnection for Coronal Conditions: Reconnection Rates, Secondary Islands and Onset
journal, February 2011
- Cassak, P. A.; Shay, M. A.
- Space Science Reviews, Vol. 172, Issue 1-4
Photospheric line-tying conditions for the MHD stability of coronal magnetic fields
journal, June 1986
- Hood, A. W.
- Solar Physics, Vol. 105, Issue 2
Instabilities in the solar corona
journal, April 1992
- Hood, A. W.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 34, Issue 4
Spontaneous reconnection of line-tied flux tubes
journal, May 1994
- Longcope, D. W.; Strauss, H. R.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 426
The effect of line-tying on tearing modes
journal, March 2008
- Delzanno, Gian Luca; Finn, John M.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 15, Issue 3
Effects of line tying on resistive tearing instability in slab geometry
journal, April 2009
- Huang, Yi-Min; Zweibel, Ellen G.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 16, Issue 4
A new method for analyzing line-tied kink modes in cylindrical geometry
journal, July 2006
- Evstatiev, E. G.; Delzanno, G. L.; Finn, J. M.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 13, Issue 7
m=1 ideal internal kink modes in a line-tied screw pinch
journal, September 2006
- Huang, Yi-Min; Zweibel, Ellen G.; Sovinec, Carl R.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 13, Issue 9
Effects of line-tying on magnetohydrodynamic instabilities and current sheet formation
journal, May 2010
- Huang, Yi-Min; Bhattacharjee, A.; Zweibel, Ellen G.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 17, Issue 5
Spontaneous Current-Layer Fragmentation and Cascading Reconnection in Solar Flares. i. Model and Analysis
journal, July 2011
- Bárta, Miroslav; Büchner, Jörg; Karlický, Marian
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 737, Issue 1
Numerical Experiments on fine Structure Within Reconnecting Current Sheets in Solar Flares
journal, July 2011
- Shen, Chengcai; Lin, Jun; Murphy, Nicholas A.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 737, Issue 1
Numerical experiments on magnetic reconnection in solar flare and coronal mass ejection current sheets: Experiments on magnetic reconnection
journal, September 2012
- Mei, Z.; Shen, C.; Wu, N.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 425, Issue 4
Works referencing / citing this record:
MMS Examination of FTEs at the Earth's Subsolar Magnetopause
journal, February 2018
- Akhavan-Tafti, M.; Slavin, J. A.; Le, G.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 2
MMS Multi‐Point Analysis of FTE Evolution: Physical Characteristics and Dynamics
journal, July 2019
- Akhavan‐Tafti, M.; Slavin, J. A.; Eastwood, J. P.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 124, Issue 7
Plasmoid-mediated reconnection in solar UV bursts
journal, July 2019
- Peter, H.; Huang, Y. -M.; Chitta, L. P.
- Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 628
Non-linear tearing of 3D null point current sheets
journal, August 2014
- Wyper, P. F.; Pontin, D. I.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 8
On the role of system size in Hall MHD magnetic reconnection
journal, February 2018
- Bard, C.; Dorelli, J. C.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 2
A maximum entropy principle for inferring the distribution of 3D plasmoids
journal, January 2018
- Lingam, Manasvi; Comisso, Luca
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 1
Influence of 3D plasmoid dynamics on the transition from collisional to kinetic reconnection
journal, July 2019
- Stanier, A.; Daughton, W.; Le, A.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 26, Issue 7
Fast sawtooth reconnection at realistic Lundquist numbers
journal, November 2014
- Günter, S.; Yu, Q.; Lackner, K.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 57, Issue 1
Magnetic reconnection: from the Sweet–Parker model to stochastic plasmoid chains
journal, November 2015
- Loureiro, N. F.; Uzdensky, D. A.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 58, Issue 1
MHD simulations of three-dimensional resistive reconnection in a cylindrical plasma column
journal, July 2016
- Striani, E.; Mignone, A.; Vaidya, B.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 462, Issue 3
Plasmoid statistics in relativistic magnetic reconnection
journal, January 2018
- Petropoulou, M.; Christie, I. M.; Sironi, L.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 475, Issue 3
Gamma-Ray Bursts Induced by Turbulent Reconnection
journal, September 2019
- Lazarian, A.; Zhang, Bing; Xu, Siyao
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 882, Issue 2
Dynamic Evolution of Current Sheets, Ideal Tearing, Plasmoid Formation and Generalized Fractal Reconnection Scaling Relations
journal, August 2019
- Singh, K. A. P.; Pucci, Fulvia; Tenerani, Anna
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 881, Issue 1
Relativistic Plasmoid Instability in Pair Plasmas
journal, September 2019
- Yang, S. D.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 882, Issue 2
Three-Dimensional Simulations of Tearing and Intermittency in Coronal Jets
text, January 2016
- Wyper, P. F.; DeVore, C. R.; Karpen, J. T.
- arXiv
MHD simulations of three-dimensional Resistive Reconnection in a cylindrical plasma column
text, January 2016
- Striani, Edoardo; Mignone, Andrea; Vaidya, Bhargav
- arXiv
A Maximum Entropy Principle for inferring the Distribution of 3D Plasmoids
text, January 2017
- Lingam, Manasvi; Comisso, Luca
- arXiv
Plasmoid statistics in relativistic magnetic reconnection
text, January 2017
- Petropoulou, M.; Christie, I. M.; Sironi, L.
- arXiv
Dynamic evolution of current sheets, ideal tearing, plasmoid formation and generalized fractal reconnection scaling relations
text, January 2019
- Singh, Alkendra; Pucci, Fulvia; Tenerani, Anna
- arXiv
Figures / Tables found in this record: