Kinetic simulations of the coupling between current instabilities and reconnection in thin current sheets

T. Wiegelmann (1) , J. Büchner (1)

1 MPI Aeronomie - Max-Planck-Institut für Aeronomie

We investigate the coupling between current and tearing instability modes of a thin current sheet using the particle code GISMO. We identify pure tearing modes (k_x != 0), instabilities in the current flow direction (k_y != 0) and general 3D reconnection modes (k_x != 0 and k_y != 0). Our results give evidence that the coupling between tearing modes and current instabilities plays an important role for spontaneous magnetic reconnection. These modes give a substantial contribution to magnetic reconnection, additional to the well known 2D tearing mode. When allowing reconnection to occur in three spatial dimensions, a configuration, which was initially invariant in the current How direction, develops into a configuration with no invariant direction.

Domaines: Cosmologie et astrophysique extra-galactique [astro-ph.CO]; Astrophysique [astro-ph]; Sciences de la Terre

T. Wiegelmann, J. Büchner. Kinetic simulations of the coupling between current instabilities and reconnection in thin current sheets. Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, 2000, 7 (3/4), pp.141-150. ⟨hal-00303028⟩