@article{b9f1d227356a441e974ec62f73c678d6,
title = "Mechanism of non-steady Petschek-type reconnection with uniform resistivity",
abstract = "The Sweet-Parker and Petschek models are well-established magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) models of steady magnetic reconnection. Recent findings on magnetic reconnection in high-Lundquist-number plasmas indicate that Sweet-Parker-type reconnection in marginally stable thin current sheets connecting plasmoids can produce fast reconnection. By contrast, it has proven difficult to achieve Petschek-type reconnection in plasmas with uniform resistivity because sustaining it requires localization of the diffusion region. However, Shibayama et al. [Phys. Plasmas 22, 100706 (2015)] recently noted that Petschek-type reconnection can be achieved spontaneously in a dynamical manner even under uniform resistivity through what they called dynamical Petschek reconnection. In this new type of reconnection, Petschek-type diffusion regions can be formed in connection with plasmoids. In this paper, we report the results of two-dimensional resistive MHD simulation with uniform resistivity, undertaken to determine the diffusion region localization mechanism under dynamical Petschek reconnection. Through this modeling, we found that the separation of the X-point from the flow stagnation point (S-point) plays a crucial role in the localization of the diffusion region because the motion of the X-point is restricted by the strong flow emanating from the flow stagnation point. This mechanism suggests that dynamical Petschek reconnection is possible even in large systems such as the solar corona.",
author = "Takuya Shibayama and Kanya Kusano and Takahiro Miyoshi and Amitava Bhattacharjee",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by JSPS/MEXT KAKENHI Grant Nos. 16J06873, JP15H05814, and JP15K04756. This research was supported by MEXT as “Exploratory Challenge on Post-K computer” (Elucidation of the Birth of Exoplanets [Second Earth] and the Environmental Variations of Planets in the Solar System). The results are obtained by using the K computer at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science (Proposal number hp170077). A part of the computation was performed on the FX100 supercomputer system at the Information Technology Center, Nagoya University, and also on the Earth Simulator with the support of JAMSTEC. This study was carried out by using the computational resource of the Center for Integrated Data Science, Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University through the joint research program. A.B. acknowledges the support of NSF Grant Nos. AGS-1338944 and AGS-0962698 and the generous hospitality of the Center of Computational Astrophysics at the Flatiron Institute. Finally, we sincerely thank the anonymous referees for useful suggestions that helped improve the content of this paper. Funding Information: This work was supported by JSPS/MEXT KAKENHI Grant Nos. 16J06873, JP15H05814, and JP15K04756. This research was supported by MEXT as {"}Exploratory Challenge on Post-K computer{"} (Elucidation of the Birth of Exoplanets [Second Earth] and the Environmental Variations of Planets in the Solar System). The results are obtained by using the K computer at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science (Proposal number hp170077). A part of the computation was performed on the FX100 supercomputer system at the Information Technology Center, Nagoya University, and also on the Earth Simulator with the support of JAMSTEC. This study was carried out by using the computational resource of the Center for Integrated Data Science, Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University through the joint research program. A.B. acknowledges the support of NSF Grant Nos. AGS-1338944 and AGS-0962698 and the generous hospitality of the Center of Computational Astrophysics at the Flatiron Institute. Finally, we sincerely thank the anonymous referees for useful suggestions that helped improve the content of this paper. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Author(s).",
year = "2019",
month = mar,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1063/1.5084771",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "26",
journal = "Physics of Plasmas",
issn = "1070-664X",
publisher = "American Institute of Physics Publising LLC",
number = "3",
}