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Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 105004 (2009) [4 pages]

Formation of Plasmoid Chains in Magnetic Reconnection

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R. Samtaney1, N. F. Loureiro2,*, D. A. Uzdensky3, A. A. Schekochihin4, and S. C. Cowley2,5
1Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08543, USA
2EURATOM/UKAEA Fusion Association, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, OX14 3DB, United Kingdom
3Department of Astrophysical Sciences/CMSO, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
4Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3NP, United Kingdom
5Plasma Physics, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom

Received 2 March 2009; published 4 September 2009

A detailed numerical study of magnetic reconnection in resistive MHD for very large, previously inaccessible, Lundquist numbers (104≤S≤108) is reported. Large-aspect-ratio Sweet-Parker current sheets are shown to be unstable to super-Alfvénically fast formation of plasmoid (magnetic-island) chains. The plasmoid number scales as S3/8 and the instability growth rate in the linear stage as S1/4, in agreement with the theory by Loureiro et al. [ Phys. Plasmas 14 100703 (2007)]. In the nonlinear regime, plasmoids continue to grow faster than they are ejected and completely disrupt the reconnection layer. These results suggest that high-Lundquist-number reconnection is inherently time-dependent and hence call for a substantial revision of the standard Sweet-Parker quasistationary picture for S>104.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.105004
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.105004
PACS:
52.35.Vd, 52.35.Py, 94.30.cp, 96.60.Iv

*Present address: IPFN, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal.

 
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