We performed 2.5-dimensional numerical simulations of magnetic reconnection for several models, some with the reconnection point at a high altitude (the X-type point in magnetic reconnection), and one with the reconnection point at a low altitude. In the high-altitude cases, the bright loop appears to rise for a long time, with its two footpoints separating and the Ðeld lines below the bright l...

To address the interplay between local and global effects in magnetic reconnection, axisymmetric numerical simulations for the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment [M. Yamada et al., Phys. Plasmas 4, 1936 (1997)] are performed using the NIMROD code [C.R. Sovinec et al., J. Comp. Phys. 195, 355 (2004)]. The ‘pull’ and ‘push’ modes of the device are simulated both with and without two-fluid effects i...

Dayside merging between the interplanetary and terrestrial magnetic fields couples the solar wind electric field to the Earth’s magnetosphere, increases the magnetospheric convection and results in efficient transport of solar wind energy into the magnetosphere. Subsequent reconnection of the lobe magnetic field in the magnetotail transports energy into the closed magnetic field region. Combini...

The scaling of the reconnection rate is examined in situations in which the equilibrium current supporting a reversed magnetic field has a spatial scale length that is much greater than all nonmagnetohydrodynamic ~non-MHD! kinetic scales. In this case, denoted as embedded reconnection, the narrow non-MHD region around the x-line where dissipation is important is embedded inside of a much larger...

Simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection show a dramatic enhancement of the nonlinear reconnection rate due to the formation of an open outflow region. We link the formation of this open configuration to dispersive whistler and kinetic Alfvén wave dynamics at small scales. The roles of these two waves are controlled by two dimensionless parameters, which allow us to identify regions o...

The reconnection process in the dynamics of cubic nontwist maps, introduced in [3], is studied. The present paper extends the work presented in [8]. As in that work, in order to describe the route to reconnection of the involved Poincaré–Birkhoff chains or dimerised chains we investigate an approximate interpolating Hamiltonian of the map under study revealing again that the scenario of reconne...

Hybrid simulations with electron inertia, along with analytic scaling arguments, are presented which demonstrate that magnetic reconnection remains Alfv6nic in a collisionless system even as the macroscopic scale length of the system becomes very large. This fast reconnection is facilitated by the whistler physics present near the x-line. The reconnection rate is found to be a universal constan...

We present a detailed study of fluctuations in a laboratory current sheet undergoing magnetic reconnection. The measurements reveal the presence of lower-hybrid-frequency-range fluctuations on the edge of current sheets produced in the magnetic reconnection experiment (MRX). The measured fluctuation characteristics are consistent with theoretical predictions for the lower-hybrid drift instabili...

We study the role of the guide field in relativistic magnetic reconnection in a Harris current sheet of pair (e±) plasmas, using linear theories and particlein-cell (PIC) simulations. Two-dimensional PIC simulations exhibit the guide field dependence to the linear instabilities; the tearing or reconnection modes are relatively insensitive, while the relativistic drift-kink instability (RDKI), t...

Two-dimensional, nonlinear magnetohydrodynamical simulations are used to investigate the so-called Taylor problem, in which a small amplitude boundary perturbation is suddenly applied to a tearing stable, slab plasma equilibrium—the perturbation being such as to drive magnetic reconnection within the plasma. This type of reconnection, which is not due to an intrinsic plasma instability, is gene...