Premium
Sudden disruption of a thin current sheet in collisionless Hall magnetohydrodynamics due to secondary tearing and coalescence instabilities
Author(s) -
Ma Z. W.,
Bhattacharjee A.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1999gl003627
Subject(s) - plasmoid , current sheet , magnetohydrodynamics , tearing , physics , coalescence (physics) , mechanics , substorm , current (fluid) , plasma , plasma sheet , turbulence , magnetic reconnection , instability , classical mechanics , magnetosphere , astrobiology , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics
A numerical simulation of impulsive growth and sudden disruption of a thin current sheet due to inward boundary flows in a collisionless plasma, governed by the equations of Hall magnetohydrodynamics, is presented. After a period of slow growth followed by a much shorter period of impulsive enhancement, the thin current sheet becomes unstable to secondary tearing instabilities which produce multiple islands. These secondary islands coalesce to form a large plasmoid. Much of the thin current sheet disrupts rapidly to produce magnetic turbulence in less than a characteristic Alfvén time. Possible implications for magnetotail substorms are discussed.