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Visco-resistive magnetic reconnection due to steady inertialess flows. Part 1. Exact analytical solutions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 1997

VYACHESLAV S. TITOV  and
E. R. PRIEST
VYACHESLAV S. TITOV
Affiliation:
Program Systems Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Pereslavl-Zalessky 152140, Russia
E. R. PRIEST
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, University of St. Andrews, KY16 9SS, Fife, Scotland
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Abstract

Magnetic reconnection at an X-type neutral point of a two-dimensional magnetic field is studied in an incompressible viscous resistive fluid whose flow is assumed to be slow enough that its inertia is negligible. In both the ideal and resistive magnetohydrodynamic approximations current singularities appear at the X-point and along the separatrices. It is shown here analytically that the combined effect of viscosity and resistivity can resolve these singularities with the flow crossing the separatrices. A wide class of exact solutions describing the structure of the flow and current density distribution is found. The results suggest that reconnection may occur with localized distributions of strong current density restricted to finite regions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 348 , 10 October 1997 , pp. 327 - 347
Copyright
© 1997 Cambridge University Press

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