Nonlinear explosive magnetic reconnection in a collisionless system

Nonlinear Acceleration Mechanism of Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection

A mechanism for fast magnetic reconnection in collisionless plasma is studied for understanding sawtooth collapse in tokamak discharges. Nonlinear growth of the tearing mode driven by electron inertia is analytically estimated by invoking the energy principle for the first time. Decrease of potential energy in the nonlinear regime (where the island width exceeds the electron skin depth) is foun...

Explosive turbulent magnetic reconnection.

We report simulation results for turbulent magnetic reconnection obtained using a newly developed Reynolds-averaged magnetohydrodynamics model. We find that the initial Harris current sheet develops in three ways, depending on the strength of turbulence: laminar reconnection, turbulent reconnection, and turbulent diffusion. The turbulent reconnection explosively converts the magnetic field ener...

Explosive magnetic reconnection caused by an X-shaped current-vortex layer in a collisionless plasma

Nonlinear variational method for predicting fast collisionless magnetic reconnection

A mechanism for fast magnetic reconnection in collisionless plasma is studied for understanding sawtooth collapse in tokamak discharges using a two-fluid model for cold ions and electrons. Explosive growth of the tearing mode enabled by electron inertia is analytically estimated using an energy principle with a nonlinear displacement map. Decrease in the potential energy in the nonlinear regime...

Collisionless magnetic reconnection in space plasmas

*Correspondence: Rudolf A. Treumann, International Space Science Institute Bern, Hallerstrasse 6, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected] Magnetic reconnection, the merging of oppositely directed magnetic fields that leads to field reconfiguration, plasma heating, jetting and acceleration, is one of the most celebrated processes in collisionless plasmas. It requires the violation...