Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T07:43:38.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nonlinear magnetic reconnection models with separatrix jets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2009

E. R. Priest  and
L. C. Lee
E. R. Priest
Affiliation:
Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-0800, U.S.A.
L. C. Lee
Affiliation:
Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-0800, U.S.A.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A new theory for fast steady-state magnetic reconnection is proposed that includes many features of recent numerical experiments. The inflow region differs from that in the classical model of Petschek (1964) and the unified linear solutions of Priest & Forbes (1986) in possessing highly curved magnetic field lines rather than ones that are almost straight. A separatrix jet of plasma is ejected from the central diffusion region along the magnetic separatrix. Two types of outflow are studied, the simplest possessing an outflow magnetic field that is potential. The other contains weak standing shock waves attached to the ends of the diffusion region and either slowing down the flow (fast-mode shock) after it crosses the separatrix jet or speeding it up (slow-mode), depending on the downstream boundary conditions. A spike of reversed current slows down the plasma that emerges rapidly from the diffusion region into the more slowly moving downstream region, and diverts most of it along the separatrix jets. In the simplest case the outflow possesses no vorticity over most of the downstream region. The models demonstrate that both upstream and downstream boundary conditions are important in determining which regime of reconnection is produced from a wide variety of possibilities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , October 1990 , pp. 337 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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

Biskamp, D. 1982 Z. Naturforsch. 37a, 840.Google Scholar
Biskamp, D. 1984 Phys. Lett. 105 A, 124.Google Scholar
Biskamp, D. 1986 Phys. Fluids, 29, 1520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbes, T. G. 1986 Astrophys. J. 305, 553.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbes, T. G. & Priest, E. K. 1982 Solar Phys. 81, 303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbes, T. G. & Priest, E. R. 1983 Solar Phys. 84, 169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbes, T. G. & Priest, E. R. 1984 Solar Phys. 94, 315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbes, T. G. & Priest, E. R. 1987 Rev. Geophys. 25, 1583.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fu, Z. F. & Lee, L. C. 1986 J. Geophys. Res. 91, 13373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habbal, S. R. & Tuan, T. F. 1979 J. Plasma Phys. 21, 85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jardine, M. & Priest, E. R. 1988 a J. Plasma Phys. 40, 143.Google Scholar
Jardine, M. & Priest, E. R. 1988 b J. Plasma Phys. 40, 505.Google Scholar
Jardine, M. & Priest, E. R. 1988 c Proceedings of Workshop on Reconnection in Space Plasmas, ESA SP-285, Vol. II, p. 45.Google Scholar
Jardine, M. & Priest, E. R. 1988 d Geophys. Astrophys. Fluid Dyn. 42, 163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, L. C. 1986 Solar Wind-Magnetospheric Coupling (ed. Kamide, Y. & Slavin, J. A.), p. 297. Terra Scientific.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, L. C. & Fu, Z. F. 1986 J. Geophys. Res. 91, 6807.Google Scholar
Parker, E. N. 1973 J. Plasma Phys. 9, 49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petschek, H. E. 1964 Proceedings of AAS-NASA Symposium on Physics of Solar Flares; NASA SP-50, p. 425.Google Scholar
Podgorny, A. I. & Syrovatsky, S. I. 1981 Fiz. Plazmy USSR, 7, 1055.Google Scholar
Priest, E. R. & Forbes, T. G. 1986 J. Geophys. Res. 91, 5579.Google Scholar
Scholer, M. 1989 J. Geophys. Res. 94, 8805.Google Scholar
Sonnerup, B. U. O. 1970 J. Plasma Phys. 4, 161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sonnerup, B. U. O. & Priest, E. R. 1975 J. Plasma Phys. 14, 283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sonnerup, B. U. O. & Wang, D. J. 1987 J. Geophys. Res. 92, 8621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soward, A. M. & Priest, E. R. 1977 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A 284, 369.Google Scholar
Soward, A. M. & Priest, E. R. 1986 J. Plasma Phys. 35, 333.Google Scholar
Vasyliunas, V. M. 1975 Rev. Geophys. 13, 303.Google Scholar