Magnetic reconnection and stochastic plasmoid chains in high-Lundquist-number plasmas
Type
ArticleKAUST Department
Fluid and Plasma Simulation Group (FPS)Mechanical Engineering Program
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Date
2012-04-14Online Publication Date
2012-04-14Print Publication Date
2012-04Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/552788
Metadata
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A numerical study of magnetic reconnection in the large-Lundquist-number (S), plasmoid-dominated regime is carried out for S up to 10 7. The theoretical model of Uzdensky [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 235002 (2010)] is confirmed and partially amended. The normalized reconnection rate is Ẽ eff ∼ 0.02 independently of S for S ≫ 10 4. The plasmoid flux (ψ) and half-width (w x) distribution functions scale as f (ψ) ∼ - ψ -2 and f (w x) ∼ w x -2. The joint distribution of ψ and w x shows that plasmoids populate a triangular region w x ≲ψ/B 0, where B 0 is the reconnecting field. It is argued that this feature is due to plasmoid coalescence. Macroscopic "monster" plasmoids with w x ∼ 10 % of the system size are shown to emerge in just a few Alfvén times, independently of S, suggesting that large disruptive events are an inevitable feature of large-S reconnection. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.Citation
Magnetic reconnection and stochastic plasmoid chains in high-Lundquist-number plasmas 2012, 19 (4):042303 Physics of PlasmasPublisher
AIP PublishingJournal
Physics of PlasmasarXiv
1108.4040ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1063/1.3703318