Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2009-03-03
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett
Scientific paper
A detailed numerical study of magnetic reconnection in resistive MHD for very large, previously inaccessible, Lundquist numbers ($10^4\le S\le 10^8$) is reported. Large-aspect-ratio Sweet-Parker current sheets are shown to be unstable to super-Alfv\'enically fast formation of plasmoid (magnetic-island) chains. The plasmoid number scales as $S^{3/8}$ and the instability growth rate in the linear stage as $S^{1/4}$, in agreement with the theory by Loureiro et al. [Phys. Plasmas {\bf 14}, 100703 (2007)]. In the nonlinear regime, plasmoids continue to grow faster than they are ejected and completely disrupt the reconnection layer. These results suggest that high-Lundquist-number reconnection is inherently time-dependent and hence call for a substantial revision of the standard Sweet-Parker quasi-stationary picture for $S>10^4$.
Cowley Steve C.
Loureiro Nuno F.
Samtaney Ravi
Schekochihin Alexander A.
Uzdensky Dmitri A.
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