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Computer modelling of three-dimensional dynamics of fast reconnection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2009

M. Ugai
M. Ugai
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering, Ehime University, Matsuyama 790, Japan
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Abstract

Computer simulations are used to investigate the basic three-dimensional structure of the fast reconnection mechanism spontaneously developing from a long current sheet. It is shown that if three-dimensional effects (∂sol;∂z ≠ 0) are not so strong, a locally enhanced resistivity results in current-sheet thinning, and a fast reconnection process, involving switch-off shocks, is eventually set up in a region limited in the z direction. The fast reconnection process near the z = 0 plane becomes quasi-steady and two-dimensional (∂/∂z = 0), so that the well-known Petschek mechanism is fully applicable. Distinct plasma rarefaction occurs inside the fast reconnection region, so that fast-mode expansion may propagate in the z direction, and the resulting inflow velocity uz takes the magnetic field into the fast reconnection region and contracts the latter. The global current system undergoes drastic changes during the fast-reconnection development. The current flow, initially directed in the z direction, first converges towards the neutral line, and is then largely deflected away from this line in the inner reconnection region.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , April 1991 , pp. 251 - 266
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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