Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsm41d..01b&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SM41D-01
Physics
Plasma Physics
[7526] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy / Magnetic Reconnection, [7836] Space Plasma Physics / Mhd Waves And Instabilities, [7863] Space Plasma Physics / Turbulence
Scientific paper
Numerical experiments and analytical studies suggested that within the pure resistive magnetohydrodynamics framework it is not possible to have a magnetic field-line reconnecting dynamics that spontaneously evolves from a slow, resistive reconnection regime to a fast, high-power phase. The results presented here are the first able to show this transition in fully three dimensional volume-filling regions of macroscopic systems. It is provided a complete picture of the reconnecting dynamics of a current-sheet initially set in laminar conditions, which are representative of many laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. We show how the conversion of magnetic field energy via magnetic reconnection can progress in a fast, fully three-dimensional, volume-filling regime characterized by a chaotic evolution of the system. The process does not require any pre-existing turbulence seed which often is not observed in the host systems prior to the onset of the energy conversion. The two- and three-dimensional simulations presented here have an unprecedented low level of numerical diffusion that usually determines the dissipation of energy sources that otherwise can drive the instabilities sustaining the transition to the fast energy conversion process. Even though pre-existing two-dimensional simulation studies presented some signs of this transition, yet their limited dimensionality prevented them to correctly and completely describe the fully developed volume-filling energy conversion process. In fact this non-steady dynamics critically depends on the interplay of perturbations developing along the magnetic field lines and across them, a process possible only in three-dimensions. Examples and applications to astrophysical and solar plasmas are considered.
Bettarini Lapo
Lapenta Giovanni
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