Bistability of Magnetic Reconnection With a Guide Field and its Impact on Onset

Details Bistability of Magnetic Reconnection With a Guide Field and its Impact on Onset Bistability of Magnetic Reconnection With a Guide Field and its Impact on Onset

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsm33c..05c&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SM33C-05

Computer Science

Sound

2723 Magnetic Reconnection (7526, 7835), 7526 Magnetic Reconnection (2723, 7835), 7831 Laboratory Studies And Experimental Techniques, 7835 Magnetic Reconnection (2723, 7526)

Scientific paper

The mechanism triggering the onset of fast magnetic reconnection, the driver of solar eruptions and fusion device disruptions, has long been elusive. It was found (Cassak, Shay, and Drake, Phys. Rev. Lett., 95, 235002 (2005)) that reconnection is bistable, namely both the Sweet-Parker and Hall reconnection solutions are valid when the Sweet-Parker current sheet is thicker than the ion skin depth. The Sweet-Parker solution ceases to exist when the layer thins below the ion skin depth, leading to a catastrophic onset of fast reconnection. We extend this model to include the effects of a large guide field, so that the system is in the kinetic Alfven regime. We confirm with numerical simulations that the same dynamical features are present with a guide field, but that the operative length scale is the ion Larmor radius based on the sound speed instead of the ion skin depth. The potential impact on the explosive onset of magnetic reconnection in solar eruptions and sawtooth crashes is explored.

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