Cassak PA, Drake JF, Shay MA, Eckhardt B. Onset of fast magnetic reconnection.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2007;
98:215001. [PMID:
17677781 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.98.215001]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2007] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
We demonstrate the existence of a new steady-state magnetic reconnection configuration which lies at the boundary of the basins of attraction between the Sweet-Parker and Hall reconnection configurations. The solution is linearly unstable to small perturbations and its identification required a novel iterative numerical technique. The eigenmodes of the unstable solution are localized near the X line, suggesting that the onset of fast reconnection in a weakly collisional plasma is initiated locally at the X line as opposed to remotely at the boundaries.
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