Magnetic Reconnection with Asymmetry in the Outflow Direction

Abstract

Magnetic reconnection with asymmetry in the outflow direction occurs in the Earth's magnetotail, coronal mass ejections, flux cancellation events, astrophysical disks, spheromak merging experiments, and elsewhere in nature and the laboratory. A control volume analysis is performed for the case of steady antiparallel magnetic reconnection with asymmetric downstream pressure, which is used to derive scaling relations for the outflow velocity from each side of the current sheet and the reconnection rate. Simple relationships for outflow velocity are presented for the incompressible case and the case of symmetric downstream pressure but asymmetric downstream density. Asymmetry alone is not found to greatly affect the reconnection rate. The flow stagnation point and magnetic field null do not coincide in a steady state unless the pressure gradient is negligible at the flow stagnation point.

arXiv comment12 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to JGR. Any comments will be appreciated

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Cited by in corpus (13)

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• Low-Altitude Reconnection Inflow-Outflow Observations during a 2010 November 3 Solar Eruption
• Asymmetric magnetic reconnection with a flow shear and applications to the magnetopause
• Plasma Heating During a Coronal Mass Ejection Observed by SOHO
• Model for Incomplete Reconnection in Sawtooth Crashes
• Asymmetric Magnetic Reconnection in Weakly Ionized Chromospheric Plasmas
• Asymmetric Magnetic Reconnection in Solar Flare and Coronal Mass Ejection Current Sheets
• Reconnection in the Post-Impulsive Phase of Solar Flares
• The plasmoid instability during asymmetric inflow magnetic reconnection
• Electron-scale reconnection in three-dimensional shock turbulence
• Resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations of X-line retreat during magnetic reconnection
• The local dayside reconnection rate for oblique interplanetary magnetic fields
• Reconnection at 3D Magnetic Null Points: Effect of Current Sheet Asymmetry