Instability of current sheets and formation of plasmoid chains

N. F. Loureiro; A. A. Schekochihin; King's College; S. C. Cowley

doi:10.1063/1.2783986

Instability of current sheets and formation of plasmoid chains

N. F. Loureiro, A. A. Schekochihin, King's College, S. C. Cowley

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

571 Scopus citations

Abstract

Current sheets formed in magnetic reconnection events are found to be unstable to high-wavenumber perturbations. The instability is very fast: its maximum growth rate scales as S^1/4v_A/L_CS, where L_CS is the length of the sheet, v_A the Alfvén speed, and S the Lundquist number. As a result, a chain of plasmoids (secondary islands) is formed, whose number scales as S^3/8.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	100703
Journal	Physics of Plasmas
Volume	14
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2783986
State	Published - 2007
Externally published	Yes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Condensed Matter Physics

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10.1063/1.2783986

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title = "Instability of current sheets and formation of plasmoid chains",

abstract = "Current sheets formed in magnetic reconnection events are found to be unstable to high-wavenumber perturbations. The instability is very fast: its maximum growth rate scales as S1/4vA/LCS, where LCS is the length of the sheet, vA the Alfv{\'e}n speed, and S the Lundquist number. As a result, a chain of plasmoids (secondary islands) is formed, whose number scales as S3/8.",

author = "Loureiro, {N. F.} and Schekochihin, {A. A.} and King's College and Cowley, {S. C.}",

note = "Funding Information: Discussions with D. A. Uzdensky are gratefully acknowledged. N.F.L. was supported by the Center for Multiscale Plasma Dynamics, DOE Fusion Science Center Cooperative Agreement ER54785. He thanks the Leverhulme International Network for Magnetised Plasma Turbulence for travel support. A.A.S. was supported by an STFC Advanced Fellowship.",

year = "2007",

doi = "10.1063/1.2783986",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "14",

journal = "Physics of Plasmas",

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publisher = "American Institute of Physics",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Instability of current sheets and formation of plasmoid chains

AU - Loureiro, N. F.

AU - Schekochihin, A. A.

AU - College, King's

AU - Cowley, S. C.

N1 - Funding Information: Discussions with D. A. Uzdensky are gratefully acknowledged. N.F.L. was supported by the Center for Multiscale Plasma Dynamics, DOE Fusion Science Center Cooperative Agreement ER54785. He thanks the Leverhulme International Network for Magnetised Plasma Turbulence for travel support. A.A.S. was supported by an STFC Advanced Fellowship.

PY - 2007

Y1 - 2007

N2 - Current sheets formed in magnetic reconnection events are found to be unstable to high-wavenumber perturbations. The instability is very fast: its maximum growth rate scales as S1/4vA/LCS, where LCS is the length of the sheet, vA the Alfvén speed, and S the Lundquist number. As a result, a chain of plasmoids (secondary islands) is formed, whose number scales as S3/8.

AB - Current sheets formed in magnetic reconnection events are found to be unstable to high-wavenumber perturbations. The instability is very fast: its maximum growth rate scales as S1/4vA/LCS, where LCS is the length of the sheet, vA the Alfvén speed, and S the Lundquist number. As a result, a chain of plasmoids (secondary islands) is formed, whose number scales as S3/8.

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ER -

Instability of current sheets and formation of plasmoid chains

Abstract

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