Physics
Scientific paper
May 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..sm52e04d&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #SM52E-04
Physics
7827 Kinetic And Mhd Theory, 7835 Magnetic Reconnection, 7843 Numerical Simulation Studies
Scientific paper
Recent work on two-dimensional, two-fluid magnetic reconnection theory suggests that Hall electric fields have three important effects on the reconnection rate: 1) reconnection is driven on a ``whistler'' time scale which is typically much shorter than the usual Alfvénic time scale, 2) the reconnection rate becomes decoupled from the flux-thawing mechanism, 3) the reconnection rate becomes insensitive to the system size scale length. Thus, it has been suggested that Hall magnetohydrodynamics (Hall-MHD) provides a framework for solving the forty year old ``time scale'' problem which occurs when one attempts to explain collisionless reconnection phenomena within the Sweet-Parker resistive MHD framework. In this talk, we present results from Hall-MHD simulations of magnetic island coalescence, demonstrating the following: 1) The ``whistler transition'' in the coalescence time observed in previous studies is, in fact, a transition from an Alfvénic time scale (consistent with constant Lundquist number) to a resistive diffusion time scale (consistent with constant resistivity), 2) The coalescence time is insensitive to the Lundquist number over a range which depends on the ratio of the island wavelength to the ion inertial length, 3) The coalescence time in the ``whistler regime'' is sensitive to the island wavelength. We discuss the implications of these results for the Sweet-Parker time scale problem.
Birn Joachim
Dorelli John C.
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