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Effects of asymmetries on the collisionless reconnecting instability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2009

B. Chike-Obi
B. Chike-Obi
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
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Abstract

The stability of collisionless reconnecting modes which are driven by a current density gradient is analysed. We consider an inhomogeneous plasma embedded in a sheared magnetic field with finite density and temperature gradients and employ a kinetic description for the inner boundary layer. Appropriate approximations reduce the resulting integro-differential system of equations to a pair of coupled second-order differential equations. In contrast to previous results, the differential operators acting on the field components do not exhibit definite symmetry. Matching is performed numerically to the outer ideal MHD region without regard to symmetry. The asymmetric part of the solution affects the mode frequency and growth rate to the extent that the radial amplitude of the perturbed magnetic field has a significant variation within the singular layer. Stability properties with respect to relevant parameters are investigated.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , June 1985 , pp. 369 - 385
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

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