Streaming tearing instability in the current sheet with a super-Alfvénic flow

Wang, S.; Lee, L. C.; Wei, Chau‐Chin

doi:10.1063/1.866693

Cited by 35 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…It is noted in the solar wind, av can be larger than as. In our previous calculations Wang, Lee, and Wei, 1988), only cases with av = aB and q~o = 0 are considered. The pressure balance condition has been used to obtain the density profile in Equation (7).…”

Section: Streaming Sausage Kink and Tearing Instabilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A mechanism for the formation of plasmoids and kink waves in the heliospheric current sheet

et al. 1988

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Satellite observations of the heliospheric current sheet indicate that the plasma flow velocity is low at the center of the current sheet and high on the two sides of current sheet. In this paper, we investigate the growth rates and eigenmodes of the sausage, kind, and tearing instabilities in the heliospheric current sheet with the observed sheared flow. These instabilities may lead to the formation of the plasmoids and kink waves in the solar wind. The results show that both the sausage and kink modes can be excited in the beliospheric current sheet with a growth time ~ 0.05-5 day. Therefore, these modes can grow during the transit of the solar wind from the Sun to the Earth. The sausage mode grows faster than the kink mode for fl~o < 1.5, while the streaming kink instability has a higher growth rate for flo~ > 1.5. Here flo~ is the ratio between the plasma and magnetic pressures away from the current layer. Ifa finite resistivity is considered, the streaming sausage mode evolves into the streaming tearing mode with the formation of magnetic islands. We suggest that some of the magnetic clouds and plasmoids observed in the solar wind may be associated with the streaming sausage instability. Furthermore, it is found that a large-scale kink wave may develop in the region with a radial distance greater than 0.5-1.5 AU.

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Section: Streaming Sausage Kink and Tearing Instabilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, Lee et aL (1988) and Wang, Lee, and Wei (1988) found that the streaming sausage, kink, and tearing instabilities can be excited in a current sheet with a super-Alfv6nic plasma flow. The streaming sausage and kink instabilities, similar to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, are caused by the sheared plasma flow.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A mechanism for the formation of plasmoids and kink waves in the heliospheric current sheet

et al. 1988

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“…In contrast, the initial tearing mode based on the relativistic Harris equilibrium is still constrained by k x λ < 1 (i.e., from relativistic energy principle) [40], as in the non-relativistic limit. A temperature anisotropy [41,42] or the velocity shear associated with the outflow jet [43][44][45] may change the stability criterion, however, to resolve this issue in the relativistic regime is beyond the scope of this Letter. Fig.…”

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Scaling of Magnetic Reconnection in Relativistic Collisionless Pair Plasmas

et al. 2015

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Using fully kinetic simulations, we study the scaling of the inflow speed of collisionless magnetic reconnection in electron-positron plasmas from the non-relativistic to ultra-relativistic limit. In the anti-parallel configuration, the inflow speed increases with the upstream magnetization parameter σ and approaches the speed of light when σ > O(100), leading to an enhanced reconnection rate. In all regimes, the divergence of the pressure tensor is the dominant term responsible for breaking the frozen-in condition at the x-line. The observed scaling agrees well with a simple model that accounts for the Lorentz contraction of the plasma passing through the diffusion region. The results demonstrate that the aspect ratio of the diffusion region, modified by the compression factor of proper density, remains ∼ 0.1 in both the non-relativistic and relativistic limits.PACS numbers: 52.27. Ny, 52.35.Vd, 98.54.Cm, 98.70.Rz Introduction-Magnetic reconnection is a process that changes the topology of magnetic fields and often leads to an explosive release of magnetic energy in nature. It is thought to play a key role in many energetic phenomena in space, laboratory and astrophysical plasmas [1]. In recent years, relativistic reconnection has attracted increased attention for its potential of dissipating the magnetic energy and producing high-energy cosmic rays and emissions in magnetically dominated astrophysical systems [2], such as pulsar winds [3][4][5], gamma-ray bursts [6-8] and jets from active galactic nuclei [9][10][11]. However, many of the key properties of magnetic reconnection in the relativistic regime remain poorly understood. While early work found the rate of relativistic magnetic reconnection may increase compared to the nonrelativistic case due to the enhanced inflow arising from the Lorentz contraction of plasma passing through the diffusion region [12,13], it was later pointed out that within a steadystate Sweet-Parker model [14,15] the thermal pressure within the current sheet will constrain the outflow to mildly relativistic conditions where the Lorentz contraction is negligible [16], and a relativistic inflow is therefore impossible. Recently, the role of temperature anisotropy [17], inflow plasma pressure [18], two-fluid [18], inertia effects [19] and mass ratio [20] have been considered. All existing theories are generalizations of the steady-state Sweet-Parker or Petschek-type [21] models, which do not account for the mechanism that localizes the diffusion region and determines the reconnection rate in collisionless plasmas. Meanwhile, a range of reconnection rates are reported in computational works with different simulation models and normalization definitions [18,20,[22][23][24][25]. However, the scaling of the rate has yet to be determined and the kinetic physics of the diffusion region is poorly understood in the relativistic limit.

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“…The elongation brings a slowlymoving, confined plasma into the solar wind flowing along the streamer stalk and introduces velocity shear into the system. When the shear is large enough, a streaming sausage mode instability Wang et al, 1988) may develop to trigger the reconnection, producing the disconnected plasma blobs. Besides the sausage mode instability, there are also two other possible processes contributing to the occurrence of reconnection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Statistical Study on the Morphology of Rays and Dynamics of Blobs in the Wake of Coronal Mass Ejections

et al. 2011

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In this paper, with a survey through the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) data from 1996 to 2009, we present 11 events with plasma blobs flowing outwards sequentially along a bright coronal ray in the wake of a coronal mass ejection. The ray is believed to be associated with the current sheet structure that formed as a result of solar eruption, and the blobs are products of magnetic reconnection occurring along the current sheet. The ray morphology and blob dynamics are investigated statistically. It is found that the apparent angular widths of the rays at a fixed time vary in a range of 2.1• -6.6• ) with an average of 3.5• (2.9 • ) at 3R ⊙ (4R ⊙ ), respectively, and the observed durations of the events vary from 12 h to a few days with an average of 27 h. It is also found, based on the analysis of blob motions, that 58% (26) of the blobs were accelerated, 20% (9) were decelerated, and 22% (10) moved with a nearly-constant speed. Comparing the dynamics of our blobs and those that are observed above the tip of a helmet streamer, we find that the speeds and accelerations of the blobs in these two cases differ significantly. It is suggested that these differences of the blob dynamics stem from the associated magnetic reconnection involving different magnetic field configurations and triggering processes.

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Streaming tearing instability in the current sheet with a super-Alfvénic flow

Cited by 35 publications

References 14 publications

A mechanism for the formation of plasmoids and kink waves in the heliospheric current sheet

A mechanism for the formation of plasmoids and kink waves in the heliospheric current sheet

Scaling of Magnetic Reconnection in Relativistic Collisionless Pair Plasmas

A Statistical Study on the Morphology of Rays and Dynamics of Blobs in the Wake of Coronal Mass Ejections

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