Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsm13a2028c&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SM13A-2028
Physics
Plasma Physics
[7835] Space Plasma Physics / Magnetic Reconnection, [7859] Space Plasma Physics / Transport Processes, [7863] Space Plasma Physics / Turbulence, [7867] Space Plasma Physics / Wave/Particle Interactions
Scientific paper
During magnetic reconnection, the field lines must break and reconnect to release the energy that drives solar flares and other explosions in nature. How this happens has been unclear since classical collisions needed to break field lines are typically weak. Anomalous resistivity and thermal momentum transport (the off-diagonal pressure tensor) are two mechanisms that have been widely invoked. Measurements of enhanced turbulence near reconnection sites in space and in the lab lend support to the anomalous resistivity idea but there has been no demonstration from measurements that this turbulence produces the necessary enhanced drag. Our 3D simulations show that neither of the two previously favored mechanisms controls how magnetic field lines reconnect in low beta plasmas. Rather, we find that the intense current layers form during reconnection disintegrate and spread into a complex web of filaments. The impact on the current layer can be characterized as an anomalous viscosity. The onset of filamentation causes the rate of reconnection to increase abruptly.
Che Hai-hong
Drake James F.
Swisdak Michael
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