article Open AccessTop 10% cited
Instability of current sheets and formation of plasmoid chains
Physics of Plasmas · 2007 · Vol. 14(10)
Nuno Loureiro✉(Princeton University)A. A. Schekochihin(University of Cambridge)S. C. Cowley(Imperial College London)
Abstract
Current sheets formed in magnetic reconnection events are found to be unstable to high-wavenumber perturbations. The instability is very fast: its maximum growth rate scales as S1∕4vA∕LCS, where LCS is the length of the sheet, vA the Alfvén speed, and S the Lundquist number. As a result, a chain of plasmoids (secondary islands) is formed, whose number scales as S3∕8.
Solar and Space Plasma DynamicsIonosphere and magnetosphere dynamicsGeomagnetism and Paleomagnetism StudiesPlasmoidPhysicsCurrent sheetInstabilityMagnetic reconnectionWavenumberCurrent (fluid)PlasmaMechanicsClassical mechanics
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References
Fully kinetic simulations of undriven magnetic reconnection with open boundary conditions
Physics of Plasmas · 2006 · 497 citations
Interplanetary Magnetic Field and the Auroral Zones
Physical Review Letters · 1961 · 4,194 citations
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