2016/09/10 by Luca Comisso, L. Comisso, A. Bhattacharjee +1 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Diffusion #Field (mathematics) #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Magnetic confinement fusion research #Magnetic reconnection #Order (exchange) #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Underpinning #Upstream (networking) #Value (mathematics) #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.SR #physics.plasm-ph #physics.space-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s002237781600101x
published as J. Plasma Phys. 82 (2016) 595820601 · Manuscript submitted for the JPP Special Issue "Solved and Unsolved Problems in Plasma Physics"
arxiv created 2016/09/10 · openalex created_date 2016/09/23 · openalex publication_date 2016/11/04 · arxiv updated 2016/11/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Numerical simulations have consistently shown that the reconnection rate in certain collisionless regimes can be fast, of the order of 0.1vABu , where vA and Bu are the Alfvén speed and the reconnecting magnetic field upstream of the ion diffusion region. This particular value has been reported in myriad numerical simulations under disparate conditions. However, despite decades of research, the reasons underpinning this specific value remain mysterious. Here, we present an overview of this problem and discuss the conditions under which the ‘0.1 value’ is attained. Furthermore, we explain why this problem should be interpreted in terms of the ion diffusion region length.