Coupling between Global Geometry and the Local Hall Effect Leading to Reconnection-Layer Symmetry Breaking

Michiaki Inomoto, Stefan P. Gerhardt, Masaaki Yamada, Hantao Ji, Elena Belova, Aleksey Kuritsyn, and Yang Ren
Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 135002 – Published 27 September 2006

Abstract

The coupling between the global reconnection geometry and the local microphysics, caused by the Hall effect, is studied during counterhelicity plasma merging in the magnetic reconnection experiment. The structure of the reconnection layer is significantly modified by reversing the sign of the toroidal fields, which affects the manifestation of the Hall effect in the collisionless regime. The local two-fluids physics changes the global boundary conditions, and this combination effect consequently provides different reconnection rates, magnetic field structure, and plasma flow patterns for two different counterhelicity merging cases in the collisionless regime.

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  • Received 29 March 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.135002

©2006 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Michiaki Inomoto*, Stefan P. Gerhardt, Masaaki Yamada, Hantao Ji, Elena Belova, Aleksey Kuritsyn, and Yang Ren

  • Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08543, USA

  • *Permanent address: Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
  • Permanent address: The University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.

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Issue

Vol. 97, Iss. 13 — 29 September 2006

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