Scaling of Collisionless Forced Reconnection

Xiaogang Wang; A. Bhattacharjee; Z. W. Ma

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.265003

Scaling of Collisionless Forced Reconnection

Xiaogang Wang, A. Bhattacharjee, and Z. W. Ma

Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 265003 – Published 7 December 2001

Abstract

The scaling of the reconnection electric field in a collisionless plasma is determined analytically for a model of forced reconnection. In particular, the dependence of the length of the reconnection layer on the ion skin depth and the boundary conditions is calculated explicitly. Analytical results are tested by Hall magnetohydrodynamics simulations.

Received 16 January 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.265003

Authors & Affiliations

Xiaogang Wang^1,2, A. Bhattacharjee¹, and Z. W. Ma¹

¹Center for Magnetic Reconnection Studies, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242
²School of Advanced Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China 116024