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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik
EP 6: Astrophysics
EP 6.1: Hauptvortrag
Mittwoch, 23. März 2022, 11:00–11:30, EP-H1
Three-dimensional topology-driven magnetic reconnection — •Raquel Mäusle1, Jean-Mathieu Teissier1, and Wolf-Christian Müller1,2 — 1Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany — 2Max-Planck/Princeton Center for Plasma Physics, Princeton, NJ, USA
Magnetic reconnection is a dissipative process, by which the magnetic field structure within a plasma is changed. It is important in many astrophysical systems, such as the Sun’s corona, where it is believed to be of importance for the generation of solar flares.
We study a three-dimensional model of magnetic reconnection driven by magnetic field topology. Magnetic field lines in three-dimensional systems have the tendency to become highly entangled, making them exponentially sensitive to very small non-ideal effects. Therefore, entanglement could be the dominant mechanism for fast reconnection in low-resistivity plasmas, requiring far smaller current densities than otherwise needed. We investigate this model numerically using a fourth-order finite-volume scheme to solve the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations. We start from a system with an initially constant magnetic field and line-tied boundaries, and drive it into a chaotic state in which reconnection is occuring. We study the dynamics of this system, the correlation between the field line entanglement and the occurrence of reconnection events, as well as the dependence of the reconnection rate on the resistivity.
In this talk I will introduce the model and numerical method employed and present our preliminary results.