Impulsive Reconnection: 3D Onset and Stagnation in Turbulent Paradigms (Invited)

Details Impulsive Reconnection: 3D Onset and Stagnation in Turbulent Paradigms (Invited) Impulsive Reconnection: 3D Onset and Stagnation in Turbulent Paradigms (Invited)

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsm42a..06s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SM42A-06

Physics

Plasma Physics

[2149] Interplanetary Physics / Mhd Waves And Turbulence, [2723] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetic Reconnection, [7526] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy / Magnetic Reconnection, [7835] Space Plasma Physics / Magnetic Reconnection

Scientific paper

Reconnection processes are ubiquitous in solar coronal loops, the earth's magnetotail, galactic jets, and laboratory configurations such as spheromaks and Z pinches. It is believed that reconnection dynamics are often closely linked to turbulence. In these phenomena, the bursty onset of reconnection is partly determined by a balance of macroscopic MHD forces. In a turbulent paradigm, it is reasonable to suppose that there exist many individual reconnection sites, each X-line being finite in axial extent and thus intrinsically three-dimensional (3D) in structure. The balance between MHD forces and flux pile-up continuously shifts as mutually tangled flux ropes merge or bounce. The spatial scale and thus the rate of reconnection are therefore intimately related to the turbulence statistics both in space and in time. We study intermittent 3D reconnection along spatially localized X-lines between two or more flux ropes. The threshold of MHD instability which in this case is the kink threshold is varied by modifying the line-tying boundary conditions. For fast inflow speed of approaching ropes, there is merging and magnetic reconnection which is a well known and expected consequence of the 2D coalescence instability. On the other hand, for slower inflow speed the flux ropes bounce. The threshold appears to be the Sweet Parker speed vA/S1/2, where vA is the Alfvén speed and S is the Lundquist number. Computations by collaborators at University of Wisconsin, Madison, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and Los Alamos National Laboratory complement the experiment.

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