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Effects of turbulence on magnetic reconnection: 3D numerical simulations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2008

Katarzyna Otmianowska-Mazur ,
G. Kowal ,
A. Lazarian  and
E. Vishniac
Katarzyna Otmianowska-Mazur
Affiliation:
Astronomical Observatory, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
G. Kowal
Affiliation:
Astronomical Observatory, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
A. Lazarian
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
E. Vishniac
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
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Abstract

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Turbulent reconnection is studied by means of three dimensional (3D) compressible magnetohydrodynamical numerical calculations. The process of homogeneous turbulence is set up by adding three-dimensional solenoidal random forcing implemented in the spectral space at small wave numbers with no correlation between velocity and forcing. We apply the initial Harris current sheet configuration together with a density profile calculated from the numerical equilibrium of magnetic and gas pressures. We assume that there is no external driving of the reconnection. The reconnection develops as a result of the initial vector potential perturbation. We use open boundary conditions. Our main goal is to find the dependencies of reconnection rate on different properties of turbulence. The results of our simulations show that turbulence significantly affects the topology of magnetic field near the diffusion region. We present that the reconnection speed does not depend on the Reynolds numbers as well the magnetic diffusion. In addition, a fragmentation of current sheet decreases the disparity in inflow/outflow ratios. When we apply the large scale and more powerful turbulence the reconnection is faster.

Keywords

MHD – numerical simulations – magnetic fields – turbulence
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 4 , Symposium S259: Cosmic Magnetic Fields: From Planets, to Stars and Galaxies , November 2008 , pp. 671 - 674
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2009

References

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