Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Galaxy Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2009-09-07
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Galaxy Astrophysics
14 pages, 18 figures, submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics
Scientific paper
We study two dimensional turbulent magnetic reconnection in a compressible fluid in the gas pressure dominated limit. We use open boundary conditions and start from a Harris current sheet configuration with a uniform total pressure. A small perturbation to the vector potential initiates laminar reconnection at the Sweet-Parker rate, which is allowed to evolve for several dynamical times. Subsequently sub-Alfvenic turbulence is produced through random forcing at small wave numbers. The magnetic field topology near the current sheet is strongly affected by the turbulence. However, we find that the resulting reconnection speed depends on the resistivity. In contrast to previous results in three dimensions, we find no evidence for fast reconnection. The reconnection speed exhibits large variations but the time averages increase smoothly with the strength of the turbulence.
Kowal Grzegorz
Kulpa-Dybel K.
Lazarian Alex
Otmianowska-Mazur Katarzyna
Vishniac ET
No associations
LandOfFree
Reconnection in weakly stochastic B-fields in 2D does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Reconnection in weakly stochastic B-fields in 2D, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Reconnection in weakly stochastic B-fields in 2D will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-296217