Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsm42a..05l&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SM42A-05
Physics
[2723] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetic Reconnection, [2740] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, [2790] Magnetospheric Physics / Substorms
Scientific paper
We report the results of a model of interacting magnetic fields that involves a force normal to the reconnection layer (the force may be a gravitational or a centrifugal force, or it may be dynamic pressure imposed by the surrounding plasma). In such circumstances, the reconnection layer becomes unstable to interchange disturbances. The interchange instability results in formation of tongues of heated plasma that leaves the reconnection layer through its wide surface rather than through its narrow ends, as is the case in traditional models of a reconnecting current sheet. This plasma flow out of the reconnection layer facilitates the removal of plasma from the layer and leads to fast reconnection. The proposed mechanism provides fast reconnection of the interacting magnetic fields and does not depend on the thickness of the reconnection layer. The instability explains the strong turbulence and the bidirectional streaming of plasma that is directed toward and away from the reconnection layer that is observed frequently above reconnection layers.
Goldstein Michel L.
Lyatsky W. B.
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