Collisional tearing instability in the current sheet with a low magnetic Lundquist number
Open Access
- 1 March 1986
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Geophysical Union (AGU) in Journal of Geophysical Research
- Vol. 91 (A3) , 3311-3313
- https://doi.org/10.1029/ja091ia03p03311
Abstract
The growth rate of the collisional tearing instability is calculated for a current sheet with a low magnetic Lundquist number S. The maximum growth rate is found to be γm ≃ 0.075tA−1 tanh (8/S0.5) for 3 ≦ S ≦ 105, where tA is the Alfvén transit time in the current sheet. For S > 300, the growth rate can be written approximately as γm ≃ 0.6tA−1 S−0.5; for S < 50, the growth rate approaches an asymptotic value of ∼0.075tA−1. The present result is applicable to the current sheet associated with the diffusion region of a magnetic reconnection configuration, in which the Lundquist number, based on the thickness of the diffusion region, is typically 2 ≦ S ≦ 100.Keywords
This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit:
- Multiple X line reconnection: 1. A criterion for the transition from a single X line to a multiple X line reconnectionJournal of Geophysical Research, 1986
- Simulation of multiple X-line reconnection at the dayside magnetopauseGeophysical Research Letters, 1985
- A theory of magnetic flux transfer at the Earth's magnetopauseGeophysical Research Letters, 1985
- Hall current effect on tearing mode instabilityGeophysical Research Letters, 1983
- Tearing at the dayside magnetopauseJournal of Geophysical Research, 1981
- ISEE observations of flux transfer events at the dayside magnetopauseGeophysical Research Letters, 1979
- Theoretical models of magnetic field line mergingReviews of Geophysics, 1975
- A theory of the substorm mechanismJournal of Geophysical Research, 1974
- Magnetic-field re-connexion in a highly conducting incompressible fluidJournal of Plasma Physics, 1970
- Sweet's mechanism for merging magnetic fields in conducting fluidsJournal of Geophysical Research, 1957