NIFS-105

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Author(s):

T. Sato, T. Hayashi, K. Watanabe, R. Horiuchi, M. Tanaka, N. Sawairi and K. Kusano

Title:

Role of Compressibility on Driven Magnetic Reconnection

Date of publication:

Aug. 1991

Key words:

driven magnetic reconnection, magnetohydrodynamics, numerical simulation

Abstract:

Whether it is induced by an ideal (current driven) instability or by an external force, plasma flow causes a change in the magnetic field configuration and often gives rise to a current intensification locally, thereby a fast driven reconnection being driven there. Many dramatic phenomena in magnetically confined plasmas such as magnetospheric substorms, solar flares, MHD self-organization and tokamak sawtooth crash, may be attributed to this fast driven reconnection. Using a fourth order MHD simulation code it is confirmed that compressibility of the plasma plays a crucial role in leading to a fast (MHD time scale) driven reconnection. This indicates that the incompressible representation is not always applicable to the study of a global dynamical behavior of a magnetically confined plasma.

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