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The impurity ion temperature evolution has been measured during three types of impulsive reconnection events in the Madison Symmetric Torus reversed field pinch. During an edge reconnection event, the drop in stored magnetic energy is small and ion heating is observed to be limited to the outer half of the plasma. Conversely, during a global reconnection event the drop in stored magnetic energy...

The most important goal in magnetic reconnection research is to explain the fast magnetic reconnection phenomena observed in nature. The Hall effect has been found to drive fast magnetic reconnection in 2D numerical simulations [1]. An out-of-plane quadrupole magnetic field found in these numerical simulations [2,3] is the hallmark of the Hall effect. This quadrupole magnetic field has been obs...

Turbulent reconnection allows fast magnetic reconnection of astrophysical magnetic fields. This entails numerous astrophysical implications and opens new ways to approach long standing problems. I briefly discuss a model of turbulent reconnection within which the stochasticity of 3D magnetic field enables rapid reconnection through both allowing multiple reconnection events to take place simult...

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process in a plasma that facilitates the release of energy stored in the magnetic field by permitting a change in the magnetic topology. In this paper, we present a review of the current state of understanding of magnetic reconnection. We discuss theoretical results regarding the formation of current sheets in complex three-dimensional magnetic fields and ...

Using an isothermal MHD code, we have performed three-dimensional, highresolution simulations of the Parker instability. The initial equilibrium system is composed of exponentially-decreasing isothermal gas and magnetic field (along the azimuthal direction) under a uniform gravity. The evolution of the instability can be divided into three phases: linear, nonlinear, and relaxed. During the line...

‘1’he process of magnetic reconnection plays an important role durit[g the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth’s magnetosphere which leads to the exchange of mass, momentum, and energy between these two highly conducting pl~smas. Evidence for magnetic reconnection occurring at the magnetopause vis a vis the expected signature from the reconnection model will be discussed. Magnetic reco...

We examine the dynamics of turbulent reconnection in 2D and 3D reduced MHD by calculating the effective dissipation due to coupling between small–scale fluctuations and large–scale magnetic fields. Sweet–Parker type balance relations are then used to calculate the global reconnection rate. Two approaches are employed — quasi–linear closure and an eddy-damped fluid model. Results indicate that d...

Forbes & Lin derived simple equations to link the properties of magnetic reconnection in the corona to observed signatures of solar flares. We measured the photospheric magnetic fields and the flare ribbon separation speeds then applied these equations to derive two physical terms for the magnetic reconnection rates: the rate of magnetic flux change ’rec involved in magnetic reconnection in the...

It has been recognized that magnetic reconnection process is of great importance in high-energy astrophysics. We develop a new two-dimensional relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) code, and carry out numerical simulations of magnetic reconnection. We find that outflow velocity reaches Alfvén velocity in the inflow region, and that higher Alfvén velocity provides higher reconnection...