A catastrophe model for the onset of fast magnetic reconnection is presented that suggests why plasma systems with magnetic free energy remain apparently stable for long times and then suddenly release their energy. For a given set of plasma parameters there are generally two stable reconnection solutions: a slow (Sweet-Parker) solution and a fast (Alfvénic) Hall reconnection solution. Below a critical resistivity the slow solution disappears and fast reconnection dominates. Scaling arguments predicting the two solutions and the critical resistivity are confirmed with two-fluid simulations.
The formation of the plasma current spike at the end of the thermal quench phase is studied systematically, which is found to strongly correlate to the onset of the 1/1 kink-tearing reconnection in the simulation results. The magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) activity on the q = 1 surface plays a critical role in the spike formation and the disruption process, namely, when the safety factor in the magnetic axis q0 exceeds 1, the plasma major disruption transits into successive minor disruptions and the start of thermal quench phase is delayed.
We investigate a role of the Hall-effect in the current sheet evolution and onset of the secondary tearing (plasmoid) instability in the framework of the incompressible resistive Hall-magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). The model under consideration is a force-free modification of the Taylor's problem. Thus, the first part of the paper is devoted to a detailed analytical study of the Hall-MHD forced magnetic reconnection in a tearing stable force-free magnetic configuration. Then, in the second part, these results are used to investigate when and how the plasmoid instability can develop in the course …
Magnetic reconnection is a sporadic process responsible for energy release in space and laboratory plasmas. It is believed that the tearing mode instability may be responsible for the onset of reconnection in the magnetotail. However, due to its elusive nature, there is an absence of in-situ observations of the tearing instability prior to magnetic reconnection in our nearest natural plasma laboratory. Using neural network outlier detection methods in conjunction with Cluster spacecraft data, we find unique electron pitch angle distributions that are consistent with simulation predictions of t…
Motivated by recent observations of "electron-only" magnetic reconnection, without an ion-scale sheet or ion outflows, in both the Earth's magnetosheath and in numerical simulations, we study the formation and reconnection of electron-scale current sheets at low plasma beta. We first show that ideal sheets collapse to thicknesses much smaller than the ion scales, by deriving an appropriate analogue of the Chapman-Kendall collapse solution. Second, we show that, in practice, reconnection onset happens in these collapsing sheets once they reach a critical aspect ratio, because the tearing instab…
Magnetic reconnection plays a crucial role in large dissipative events in space plasmas, such as solar flares and geomagnetic substorms, but there has been much confusion regarding reconnection onset responsible for the explosive events. The main theme of the present paper is to propose a new physical concept on reconnection onset and to clarify physical mechanism responsible for flares and substorms. Reconnection rate can be defined as inductive electric field along X neutral line, so it is proposed that large-scale reconnection can occur when ambient reconnection (inductive) electric fields …
Two-dimensional and three-dimensional kinetic simulation results reveal the importance of the Lower-Hybrid Drift Instability LHDI to the onset of magnetic reconnection. Both explicit and implicit kinetic simulations show that the LHDI heats electrons anisotropically and increases the peak current density. Linear theory predicts these modifications can increase the growth rate of the tearing instability by almost two orders of magnitude and shift the fastest growing modes to significantly shorter wavelengths. These predictions are confirmed by nonlinear kinetic simulations in which the growth a…
We present a model for the spontaneous onset of fast magnetic reconnection in a weakly collisional plasma, such as the solar corona. When a current layer of macroscopic width undergoes collisional (Sweet-Parker) reconnection, a narrow dissipation region forms around the X-line. This dissipation region naturally becomes narrower during the reconnection process as stronger magnetic fields are convected toward the X-line. When the dissipation region becomes thinner than the ion skin depth, resistive magnetohydrodynamics breaks down as the Hall effect becomes important and the Sweet-Parker solutio…
Fast magnetic reconnection powers explosive events throughout the universe, from gamma-ray bursts to solar flares. Despite its importance, the onset of astrophysical fast reconnection is the subject of intense debate and remains an open question in plasma physics. Here we report high-cadence observations of two reconnection-driven solar microflares obtained by the \textit{Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph} that show persistent turbulent flows preceding flaring. The speeds of these flows are comparable to the local sound speed initially, suggesting the onset of fast reconnection in a highly…
Magnetic reconnection can explosively release magnetic energy when opposing magnetic fields merge and annihilate through a current sheet, driving plasma jets and accelerating non-thermal particle populations to high energy, in plasmas ranging from space and astrophysical to laboratory scales. Through laboratory experiments and spacecraft observations, significant experimental progress has been made in demonstrating how fast dissipation and reconnection occurs in narrow, kinetic-scale current sheets. However, a challenge has been to demonstrate what triggers reconnection and how it proceeds rap…
The magnetotail current sheet configuration determines magnetic reconnection properties that control the substorm onset, one of the most energetic phenomena in the Earth's magnetosphere. The quiet-time current sheet is often approximated as a two-dimensional (2D) magnetic field configuration balanced by isotropic plasma pressure gradients. However, reconnection onset is preceded by the current sheet thinning and the formation of a nearly one-dimensional (1D) magnetic field configuration. In this study, using particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate the force balance of such thin current sh…
The onset of the acceleration of ions during magnetic reconnection is explored via particle-in-cell simulations in the limit of a strong ambient guide field that self-consistently and simultaneously follow the motions of protons and $α$ particles. Heating parallel to the local magnetic field during reconnection with a guide field is strongly reduced compared with the reconnection of anti-parallel magnetic fields. The dominant heating of thermal ions during guide field reconnection results from pickup behavior of ions during their entry into reconnection exhausts and dominantly produces heating…
This is a tutorial-style selective review explaining basic concepts of forced magnetic reconnection. It is based on a celebrated model of forced reconnection suggested by J. B. Taylor. The standard magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) theory of this process has been pioneered by Hahm & Kulsrud (Phys. Fluids 28, 2412, 1985). Here we also discuss several more recent developments related to this problem. These include energetics of forced reconnection, its Hall-mediated regime, and nonlinear effects with the associated onset of the secondary tearing (plasmoid) instability.
The recent realization that Sweet-Parker current sheets are violently unstable to the secondary tearing (plasmoid) instability implies that such current sheets cannot occur in real systems. This suggests that, in order to understand the onset of magnetic reconnection, one needs to consider the growth of the tearing instability in a current layer as it is being formed. Such an analysis is performed here in the context of nonlinear resistive MHD for a generic time-dependent equilibrium representing a gradually forming current sheet. It is shown that two onset regimes, single-island and multi-isl…
The role of a super-Alfvénic plasmoid instability in the onset of fast reconnection is studied by means of the largest Hall magnetohydrodynamics simulations to date, with system sizes up to $10^{4}$ ion skin depths ($d_{i}$). It is demonstrated that the plasmoid instability can facilitate the onset of rapid Hall reconnection, in a regime where the onset would otherwise be inaccessible because the Sweet-Parker width is significantly above $d_{i}$. However, the topology of Hall reconnection is not inevitably a single stable X-point. There exists an intermediate regime where the single X-point to…
We numerically study magnetic reconnection on different spatial scales and at different heights in the weakly ionized plasma of the low solar atmosphere (around $300-800$~km above the solar surface) within a reactive 2.5 D multi-fluid plasma-neutral model. We consider a strongly magnetized plasma ($β\sim 6\% $) evolving from a force-free magnetic configuration and perturbed to initialize formation of a reconnection current sheet. On large scales, the resulting current sheets are observed to undergo a secondary 'plasmoid' instability. A series of simulations at different scales demonstrate a ca…
The evolution of current sheets in accretion flows undergoing magnetorotational instability (MRI) is examined through two and three dimensional numerical modelling of the resistive MHD equations in global cylindrical geometry. With an initial uniform magnetic field aligned in the vertical ($z$) direction, MRI produces radially extended toroidal (azimuthal) current sheets. In both 2D and 3D when axisymmetric modes dominate, these current sheets attract each other and merge in the poloidal ($rz$) plane, driving magnetic reconnection when the Lundquist number $S > 3 \times 10^2$, making it a poss…
Magnetic reconnection, a fundamentally important process in many aspects of astrophysics, is believed to be initiated by the tearing instability of an electric current sheet, a region where magnetic field abruptly changes direction and electric currents build up. Recent studies have suggested that the amount of magnetic shear in these structures is a critical parameter for the switch-on nature of magnetic reconnection in the solar atmosphere, at fluid spatial scales much larger than kinetic scales. We present results of simulations of reconnection in 3D current sheets with conditions appropria…
Theoretical studies of the plasmoid instability generally assume that the reconnecting magnetic fields are symmetric. We relax this assumption by performing two-dimensional resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the plasmoid instability during asymmetric inflow magnetic reconnection. Magnetic asymmetry modifies the onset, scaling, and dynamics of this instability. Magnetic islands develop preferentially into the weak magnetic field upstream region. Outflow jets from individual X-points impact plasmoids obliquely rather than directly as in the symmetric case. Consequently, deposition of m…
In a magnetized, collisionless plasma, the magnetic moment of the constituent particles is an adiabatic invariant. An increase in the magnetic-field strength in such a plasma thus leads to an increase in the thermal pressure perpendicular to the field lines. Above a $β$-dependent threshold (where $β$ is the ratio of thermal to magnetic pressure), this pressure anisotropy drives the mirror instability, producing strong distortions in the field lines on ion-Larmor scales. The impact of this instability on magnetic reconnection is investigated using a simple analytical model for the formation of …
Magnetic Reconnection Governs the Entire Lifecycle of Solar Eruptive Magnetic Flux Rope
State Key Laboratory of Solar Activity and Space Weather, School of Aerospace, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen（哈尔滨工业大学深圳航天学院）；School of Opto-electronic Engineering, Zaozhuang University（枣庄学院光电工程学院）
Within a MHD approach we find magnetic reconnection to progress in two entirely different ways. The first is well-known: the laminar Sweet-Parker process. But a second, completely different and chaotic reconnection process is possible. This regime has properties of immediate practical relevance: i) it is much faster, developing on scales of the order of the Alfvén time, and ii) the areas of reconnection become distributed chaotically over a macroscopic region. The onset of the faster process is the formation of closed circulation patterns where the jets going out of the reconnection regions tu…
Our understanding of magnetic reconnection in resistive magnetohydrodynamics has gone through a fundamental change in recent years. The conventional wisdom is that magnetic reconnection mediated by resistivity is slow in laminar high Lundquist ($S$) plasmas, constrained by the scaling of the reconnection rate predicted by Sweet-Parker theory. However, recent studies have shown that when $S$ exceeds a critical value $\sim10^{4}$, the Sweet-Parker current sheet is unstable to a super-Alfvénic plasmoid instability, with a linear growth rate that scales as $S^{1/4}$. In the fully developed statist…
We report for the first time the intrinsically three-dimensional (3D) geometry of the magnetic reconnection process induced by ballooning instability in a generalized Harris sheet. The spatial distribution and structure of the quasi-separatrix layers, as well as their temporal emergence and evolution, indicate that the associated magnetic reconnection can only occur in a 3D geometry, which is irreducible to that of any two-dimensional reconnection process. Such a finding provides a new perspective to the long-standing controversy over the substorm onset problem, and elucidates the combined rol…
A mechanism for explosive magnetic reconnection is investigated by analyzing the nonlinear evolution of a collisionless tearing mode in a two-fluid model that includes the effects of electron inertia and temperature. These effects cooperatively enable a fast reconnection by forming an X-shaped current-vortex layer centered at the reconnection point. A high-resolution simulation of this model for an unprecedentedly small electron skin depth $d_e$ and ion-sound gyroradius $ρ_s$, satisfying $d_e=ρ_s$, shows an explosive tendency for nonlinear growth of the tearing mode, where it is newly found th…
Astrophysical fluids are generally turbulent and this preexisting turbulence must be taken into account for the models of magnetic reconnection which are attepmted to be applied to astrophysical, solar or heliospheric environments. In addition, reconnection itself induces turbulence which provides an important feedback on the reconnection process. In this paper we discuss both theoretical model and numerical evidence that magnetic reconnection gets fast in the approximation of resistive MHD. We consider the relation between the Lazarian & Vishniac turbulent reconnection theory and Lapenta's nu…
We study, by means of MHD simulations, the onset and evolution of fast reconnection via the "ideal" tearing mode within a collapsing current sheet at high Lundquist numbers ($S\gg10^4$). We first confirm that as the collapse proceeds, fast reconnection is triggered well before a Sweet-Parker type configuration can form: during the linear stage plasmoids rapidly grow in a few Alfvén times when the predicted "ideal" tearing threshold $S^{-1/3}$ is approached from above; after the linear phase of the initial instability, X-points collapse and reform nonlinearly. We show that these give rise to a …
Magnetic reconnection is thought to be the dynamical mechanism underlying many explosive phenomena observed both in space and in the laboratory, though the question of how fast magnetic reconnection is triggered in such high Lundquist ($S$) number plasmas has remained elusive. It has been well established that reconnection can develop over timescales faster than those predicted traditionally once kinetic scales are reached. It has also been shown that, within the framework of resistive Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), fast reconnection is achieved for thin enough sheets via the onset of the so-call…
Magnetic reconnection converts magnetic energy into thermal and kinetic energy in plasma. Among numerous candidate mechanisms, ion acoustic instabilities driven by the relative drift between ions and electrons, or equivalently electric current, have been suggested to play a critical role in dissipating magnetic energy in collisionless plasmas. However, their existence and effectiveness during reconnection have not been well understood due to ion Landau damping and difficulties in resolving the Debye length scale in the laboratory. Here we report a sudden onset of ion acoustic bursts measured b…
Laboratory evidence of electron pressure anisotropy driving plasmoid mediated magnetic reconnection
Light Stream Labs LLC（Light Stream Labs 有限责任公司）；LULI - CNRS, CEA, UPMC Univ Paris 06 : Sorbonne Université, Ecole Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris（LULI - 法国国家科学研究中心，法国原子能和替代能源委员会，巴黎第六大学：索邦大学，综合理工学院，巴黎理工学院）；INRS-EMT；University of Bordeaux, Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, CNRS, CEA, UMR 5107（波尔多大学，高强度激光中心，法国国家科学研究中心，法国原子能和替代能源委员会）；Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory（中央激光设施，卢瑟福·阿普尔顿实验室）；Technion Israel Institute of Technology（以色列理工学院）；CELIA, Université de Bordeaux–CNRS–CEA, UMR 5107（CELIA，波尔多大学-法国国家科学研究中心-法国原子能和替代能源委员会）；Sorbonne Université, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, LUX（索邦大学，巴黎天文台，巴黎文理研究大学，法国国家科学研究中心）
The scaling of plasmoid instability maximum linear growth rate with respect to Lundquist number $S$ in a Sweet-Parker current sheet, $γ_{max}\sim S^{1/4}$, indicates that at high $S$, the current sheet will break apart before it approaches the Sweet-Parker width. Therefore, a proper description for the onset of the plasmoid instability must incorporate the evolving process of the current sheet. We carry out a series of two-dimensional simulations and develop diagnostics to separate fluctuations from an evolving background. It is found that the fluctuation amplitude starts to grow only when the…
Using observations of Earth's bow shock by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, we show for the first time that active magnetic reconnection is occurring at current sheets embedded within the quasi-parallel shock's transition layer. We observe an electron jet and heating but no ion response, suggesting we have observed an electron-only mode. The lack of ion response is consistent with simulations showing reconnection onset on sub-ion timescales. We also discuss the impact of electron heating in shocks via reconnection.
We present statistical analysis of 11,200 proton kinetic-scale current sheets (CS) observed by Parker Solar Probe during 10 days around the first perihelion. The CS thickness $λ$ is in the range from a few to 200 km with the typical value around 30 km, while current densities are in the range from 0.1 to 10\;$μ{\rm A/m^2}$ with the typical value around 0.7\;$μ{\rm A/m^2}$. These CSs are resolved thanks to magnetic field measurements at 73--290 Samples/s resolution. In terms of proton inertial length $λ_{p}$, the CS thickness $λ$ is in the range from about $0.1$ to $10λ_{p}$ with the typical va…
The spreading of the X-line out of the reconnection plane under a strong guide field is investigated using large-scale three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations in asymmetric magnetic reconnection. A simulation with a thick, ion-scale equilibrium current sheet (CS) reveals that the X-line spreads at the ambient ion/electron drift speeds, significantly slower than the Alfvén speed based on the guide field $V_{Ag}$. Additional simulations with a thinner, sub-ion-scale CS show that the X-line spreads at $V_{Ag}$ (Alfvénic spreading), much higher than the ambient species drifts. An…
We present results from the first self-consistent multi-fluid simulations of chromospheric magnetic reconnection in a weakly ionized reacting plasma. We simulate two dimensional magnetic reconnection in a Harris current sheet with a numerical model which includes ion-neutral scattering collisions, ionization, recombination, optically thin radiative loss, collisional heating, and thermal conduction. In the resulting tearing mode reconnection the neutral and ion fluids become decoupled upstream from the reconnection site, creating an excess of ions in the reconnection region and therefore an ion…
The efficiency of energy conversion during magnetic reconnection is related to the reconnection rate. While the stable reconnection rate has been studied extensively, its growth between the time of reconnection onset and the peak reconnection rate has not been thoroughly discussed. We use a 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation to examine how the non-ideal reconnection electric field evolves during the growth process and how it relates to changes near the x-line. We identify three phases of growth: 1) slow quasi-linear growth, 2) rapid exponential growth, and 3) tapered growth followed by negat…
Magnetic reconnection provides the primary source for explosive energy release, plasma heating and particle acceleration in many astrophysical environments. The last years witnessed a revival of interest in the MHD tearing instability as a driver for efficient reconnection. It has been established that, provided the current sheet aspect ratio becomes small enough ($a/L \sim S^{-1/3}$ for a given Lundquist number $S\gg 1$), reconnection occurs on ideal Alfvén timescales and becomes independent on $S$. Here we investigate, by means of two-dimensional simulations, the \emph{ideal} tearing instabi…
Works of D. Tsiklauri, T. Haruki, Phys. of Plasmas, 15, 102902 (2008) and D. Tsiklauri and T. Haruki, Phys. of Plasmas, 14, 112905, (2007) are extended by inclusion of the out-of-plane magnetic (guide) field. In particular, magnetic reconnection during collisionless, stressed $X$-point collapse for varying out-of-plane guide-fields is studied using a kinetic, 2.5D, fully electromagnetic, relativistic particle-in-cell numerical code. Cases for both open and closed boundary conditions are investigated, where magnetic flux and particles are lost and conserved respectively. It is found that reconn…
Many in-situ spacecraft observations have demonstrated that magnetic reconnection in the Earth's magnetotail is largely controlled by the pre-reconnection current sheet configuration. One of the most important thin current sheet characteristics is the preponderance of electron currents driven by strong polarized electric fields, which are commonly observed in the Earth's magnetotail well before the reconnection. We use particle-in-cell simulations to investigate magnetic reconnection in the 2D magnetotail current sheet with a finite magnetic field component normal to the current sheet and with…
A standard starting point for the simulation of collisionless reconnection is the Harris equilibrium which is made up of a current sheet that separates two regions of opposing magnetic field. Magnetohydrodynamic simulations of collisionless reconnection usually include a homogeneous background density for reasons of numerical stability. While, in some cases, this is a realistic assumption, the background density may introduce new effects both due to the more involved structure of the distribution function or due to the fact that the Alfvèn speed remains finite far away from the current sheet. …
We perform a high-resolution two-dimensional fully-kinetic numerical simulation of a turbulent plasma system with observation-driven conditions, in order to investigate the interplay between turbulence, magnetic reconnection, and particle heating from ion to sub-electron scales in the near-Sun solar wind. We find that the power spectra of the turbulent plasma and electromagnetic fluctuations show multiple power-law intervals down to scales smaller than the electron gyroradius. Magnetic reconnection is observed to occur in correspondence of current sheets with a thickness of the order of the el…
Magnetic reconnection in an antiparallel uniform Harris current sheet equilibrium, which is initially perturbed by a region of enhanced resistivity limited in all three dimensions, is investigated through compressible magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Variable resistivity, coupled to the dynamics of the plasma by an electron-ion drift velocity criterion, is used during the evolution. A phase of magnetic reconnection amplifying with time and leading to eruptive energy release is triggered only if the initial perturbation is strongly elongated in the direction of current flow or if the threshold …
We show how the conversion of magnetic field energy via magnetic reconnection can progress in a fully three-dimensional, fast, volume-filling regime. An initial configuration representative of many laboratory, space and astrophysical plasmas spontaneously evolves from the well-known regime of slow, resistive reconnection to a new regime that allows to explain the rates of energy transfer observed in jets emitted from accretion disks, in stellar/solar flare processes as well as in laboratory plasmas. This process does not require any pre-existing turbulence seed which often is not observed in t…
Recent progress in the understanding of how externally driven magnetic reconnection evolves is organized in terms of parameter space diagrams. These diagrams are constructed using four pivotal dimensionless parameters: the Lundquist number $S$, the magnetic Prandtl number $P_m$, the amplitude of the boundary perturbation $\hat Ψ_0$, and the perturbation wave number $\hat k$. This new representation highlights the parameters regions of a given system in which the magnetic reconnection process is expected to be distinguished by a specific evolution. Contrary to previously proposed phase diagrams…
In this multi-instrument paper, we search for evidence of sustained magnetic reconnection far beyond the impulsive phase of the X8.2-class solar flare on 2017 September 10. Using Hinode/EIS, CoMP, SDO/AIA, K-Cor, Hinode/XRT, RHESSI, and IRIS, we study the late-stage evolution of the flare dynamics and topology, comparing signatures of reconnection with those expected from the standard solar flare model. Examining previously unpublished EIS data, we present the evolution of non-thermal velocity and temperature within the famous plasma sheet structure, for the first four hours of the flare's dur…
Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院云南天文台）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；Yunnan Key Laboratory of Solar Physics and Space Science（云南太阳能物理与空间科学重点实验室）
