Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:01:53.905Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Magnetic field-line reconnexion by localized enhancement of resistivity. Part 3. Controlling factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2009

Masayuki Ugai  and
Takao Tsuda
Masayuki Ugai
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, Ehime University, Matsuyama, Japan
Takao Tsuda
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering,Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The previous companion papers have shown the important effect of a local increase in resistivity upon the fast-reconnexion configuration. The present paper exaniines another significant situation where the injection rate of magnetic flux into the reconnexion region is strongly constrained by some external agency. It is shown that as long as a local resistivity enhancement is retained, stationary configurations can ultimately be established which depend on the imposed boundary values in each case. The rate of magnetic field line reconnexion in the stationary configuration is indeed closely controlled by the boundary values. However, the reconnexion rate (measured by the local Mach number at a distance from the neutral point as in the ordinary theoretical treatments) is scarcely influenced by them. Also, it is shown that without the local resistivity enhancement the large-scale X-type field configuration, which should be required for any fast reconnexion process, can no longer be sustained.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , June 1979 , pp. 459 - 473
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Heyvaerts, J., Priest, E. R. & Rust, D. M. 1977 Astrophys. J. 216, 123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petschek, H. E. 1964 AAS-NASA Symposium, Physics of Solar Flares, NASA SP-50, p. 425.Google Scholar
Sonnerup, B. U. O. 1970 J. Plasma Phys. 4, 161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soward, A. M. & Priest, E. R. 1977 Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. 284, 369.Google Scholar
Stevenson, J. C. 1972 J. Plasma Phys. 7, 293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsuda, T. & Ugai, M. 1977 J. Plasma Phys. 18, 451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ugai, M. & Tsuda, T. 1977 J. Plasma Phys. 17, 337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasyliunas, V. 1975 Rev. Geophys. Space Phys. 13, 303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar