Authors
A Lazarian, Ethan T Vishniac
Publication date
1999/6/1
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal
Volume
517
Issue
2
Pages
700
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Description
We examine the effect of weak, small-scale magnetic field structure on the rate of reconnection in a strongly magnetized plasma. This affects the rate of reconnection by reducing the transverse scale for reconnection flows and by allowing many independent flux reconnection events to occur simultaneously. Allowing only for the first effect and using Goldreich & Sridhar's model of strong turbulence in a magnetized plasma with negligible intermittency, we find a lower limit for the reconnection speed∼ V , where V is the Alfvén speed, ℛ is the Lundquist number, and ℳ is the large-scale magnetic Mach number of the turbulence. We derive an upper limit of∼ V by invoking both effects. We argue that generic reconnection in turbulent plasmas will normally occur at close to this upper limit. The fraction of magnetic energy that goes directly into electron heating scales as ℛ , and the thickness of the current sheet …
Total citations
20002001200220032004200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320241612916132014141723364851675456675966616658705740
Scholar articles
A Lazarian, ET Vishniac - The Astrophysical Journal, 1999