Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsh43a1923d&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SH43A-1923
Physics
Plasma Physics
[7526] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy / Magnetic Reconnection, [7835] Space Plasma Physics / Magnetic Reconnection
Scientific paper
Phenomena ranging from the quiescent heating of the ambient plasma to the highly explosive release of energy and acceleration of particles in flares are conjectured to result from magnetic reconnection at electric current sheets in the Sun's corona. We are investigating numerically, using a macroscopic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model with adaptive mesh refinement, the formation and reconnection of a current sheet in an initially potential 2D magnetic field containing a null. Subjecting this simple configuration to unequal stresses in the four quadrants bounded by the X-line separatrix distorts the potential null into a double-Y-line current sheet. We find that even small distortions of the magnetic field induce the formation of a tangential discontinuity in the high-beta region around the null. A continuously applied stress eventually leads to the onset of fast magnetic reconnection across the sheet, with copious production, merging, and ejection of magnetic islands. We compare the current-sheet development and evolution for three cases: quasi-ideal MHD with numerical resistivity only; uniformly resistive MHD; and MHD with an embedded kinetic reconnection model. Analogous kinetic simulations using particle-in-cell (PIC) methods to investigate the small-scale dynamics of the system also are being pursued (C. Black et al., this meeting). Our progress toward understanding this simple system will be reported, as will the implications of our results for the dynamic activity associated with coronal current sheets and for general multiscale modeling of magnetized plasmas in the Heliosphere. Our research was supported by NASA.
Antiochos Spiro K.
Black Carrie
DeVore Richard C.
Karpen Judith T.
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