Magnetic reconnection can be interpreted as a process in which the electromagnetic eld is frozen into a four-velocity eld in Minkowski space. For reconnec-tion to occur the four-velocity eld has to be a special type of stagnation ow. Prescribing this type of ow in a nite spatial domain allows the modelling of localized reconnection events and the investigation of examples of reconnection in reg...

For understanding the structure of an MHD-scale Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI) in a non-linear stage, we have performed two-dimensional two-fluid simulations including finite electron inertial effects. In the twofluid system, magnetic reconnection occurs spontaneously because the ’frozen-in’ condition can be broken by the electron inertial effects. When an MHD-scale velocity shear exists, a...

We study the effects of turbulence on magnetic reconnection using three-dimensional numerical simulations. This is the first attempt to test a model of fast magnetic reconnection proposed by Lazarian & Vishniac (1999), which assumes the presence of weak, small-scale magnetic field structure near the current sheet. This affects the rate of reconnection by reducing the transverse scale for reconn...

We investigate, through 2D MHD numerical simulations, the interaction of a uniform magnetic field oblique to a moving interstellar cloud. In particular we explore the transformation of cloud kinetic energy into magnetic energy as a result of field line stretching. Some previous simulations have emphasized the possible dynamical importance of a “magnetic shield” formed around clouds when the mag...

Title of dissertation: CATASTROPHE MODEL FOR THE ONSET OF FAST MAGNETIC RECONNECTION Paul Adam Cassak Doctor of Philosophy, 2006 Dissertation directed by: Professor James Drake Department of Physics Solar flares, magnetic substorms and sawtooth crashes in fusion devices are explosive events in which magnetic reconnection facilitates the rapid release of energy stored in stressed magnetic fields...

Magnetic reconnection, a change of magnetic field connectivity, is a fundamental physical process in which magnetic energy is released explosively, and it is responsible for various eruptive phenomena in the universe. However, this process is difficult to observe directly. Here, the magnetic topology associated with a solar reconnection event is studied in three dimensions using the combined pe...

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...

In this work, recent advances in numerical studies of local reconnection events in the turbulent plasmas are reviewed. Recently [1], the nonlinear dynamics of magnetic reconnection in turbulence has been investigated through high resolution numerical simulations. Both uid (MHD and Hall MHD) and kinetic (HybridVlasov) 2D simulations reveal the presence of a large number of X-type neutral points,...

We perform three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of magnetic reconnection with multiple magnetic null points. Magnetic field energy conversion into kinetic energy is about five times higher than in traditional Harris sheet configuration. More than 85% of initial magnetic field energy is transferred to particle energy during 25 reversed ion cyclofrequencies. Magnetic reconnection in the...

Global models of the heliosphere are critical tools used in interpretation heliospheric observations. There several three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) that rely on different strategies and assumptions. Until now only one paper has compared global models, but without magnetic field effects. We compare results two MHD BU Moscow models. Both use identical boundary conditions to how numeri...