Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T03:27:27.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Generalization of the Harris current sheet model for non-relativistic, relativistic and pair plasmas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2008

M. BALIKHIN  and
M. GEDALIN
M. BALIKHIN
Affiliation:
ACSE, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
M. GEDALIN
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Reconnection is believed to be responsible for plasma acceleration in a large number of space and astrophysical objects. Onset of reconnection is usually related to instabilities of current sheet equilibria. Analytical self-consistent models of an equilibrium current sheet (Harris equilibrium) are known for non-relativistic plasmas and some special cases of relativistic plasmas. We develop a description of generalized Harris equilibria in collisionless non-relativistic and relativistic plasmas. Possible shapes of the magnetic field are analyzed.

Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 74 , Issue 6 , December 2008 , pp. 749 - 763
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ceccherini, F., Montagna, C., Pegoraroc, F. and Cicognad, G. 2005 Two-dimensional Harris–Liouville plasma kinetic equilibria. Phys. Plasmas 12, 052506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coroniti, F. V. 1990 Magnetically striped relativistic magnetohydrodynamic winds – The Crab Nebula revisited. Astrophys. J. 349, 538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Matteo, T. 1998 Magnetic reconnection: flares and coronal heating in active galactic nuclei. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 299, L15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dungey, J. W. 1961 Interplanetary magnetic field and the auroral zones. Phys. Rev. Lett. 6, 47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, E. G. 1962 On a plasma sheath separating regions of oppositely directed magnetic fields. Nuovo Cimento 23, 115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoh, F. C. 1966 Stability of sheet pinch. Phys. Fluids 9, 277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirk, J. G. and Skjœraasen, O. 2003 Dissipation in poynting-fluxdominated flows: the σ-problem of the Crab pulsar wind. Astrophys. J. 591, 366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larrabee, D. A., Lovelace, R. V. E. and Romanova, M. M. 2003 Lepton acceleration by relativistic collisionless magnetic reconnection. Astrophys. J. 586, 72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lesch, H. and Birk, G. T. 1998 On the origin of extended nonthermal optical emission in extragalactic jets. Astrophys. J. 499, 167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, E. N. 1957 Sweet's mechanism for merging magnetic fields in conducting fluids. J. Geophys. Res. 62, 509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schindler, K. and Birn, J. 2002 Models of two-dimensional embedded thin current sheets from Vlasov theory. J. Geophys. Res. 107, 1193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sitnov, M. I., Guzdar, P. N. and Swisdak, M.A model of the bifurcated current sheet. Geophys. Res. Lett. 30, 1712.Google Scholar
Yoon, P. H. and Lui, A. T. Y. 2005 A class of exact two-dimensional kinetic current sheet equilibria. J. Geophys. Res. 110, A01202.Google Scholar
Zelenyi, L. M. and Krasnoselskikh, V. V. 1979 Relativistic modes of tearing instability in a background plasma. Sov. Astron. 23, 460.Google Scholar