Quantifying three dimensional reconnection in fragmented current layers

Abstract

There is growing evidence that when magnetic reconnection occurs in high Lundquist number plasmas such as in the Solar Corona or the Earth's Magnetosphere it does so within a fragmented, rather than a smooth current layer. Within the extent of these fragmented current regions the associated magnetic flux transfer and energy release occurs simultaneously in many different places. This investigation focusses on how best to quantify the rate at which reconnection occurs in such layers. An analytical theory is developed which describes the manner in which new connections form within fragmented current layers in the absence of magnetic nulls. It is shown that the collective rate at which new connections form can be characterized by two measures; a total rate which measures the true rate at which new connections are formed and a net rate which measures the net change of connection associated with the largest value of the integral of $E_{\Vert }$ through all of the non-ideal regions. Two simple analytical models are presented which demonstrate how each should be applied and what they quantify.

14 pages, 15 figures. Published in Physics of Plasmas

References in corpus (8)

• Instability of current sheets and formation of plasmoid chains
• Numerical Tests of Fast Reconnection in Weakly Stochastic Magnetic Fields
• A Reconnecting Current Sheet Imaged in A Solar Flare
• Current Sheets Formation in Tangled Coronal Magnetic Fields
• Non-linear Tearing of 3D Null Point Current Sheets
• Dynamic Topology and Flux Rope Evolution During Non-linear Tearing of 3D Null Point Current Sheets
• Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in a current-vortex sheet at a 3D magnetic null
• Reconnection at 3D Magnetic Null Points: Effect of Current Sheet Asymmetry

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Turbulent Magnetohydrodynamic Reconnection Mediated by the Plasmoid Instability
• Three-Dimensional Simulations of Tearing and Intermittency in Coronal Jets
• Fast Magnetic Reconnection with Turbulence in High Lundquist Number Limit
• Evolution, structure and topology of self-generated turbulent reconnection layers
• A Method for Determining the Locations and Configurations of Magnetic Reconnection within 3D Turbulent Plasmas
• Local extraction of three-dimensional magnetic reconnection X-lines
• Magnetic reconnection and the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in the solar corona