On the Sweet-Parker model for incompressible visco-resistive magnetic reconnection in two dimensions associated to ideal magnetohydrodynamic instabilities

TL;DR

This paper revisits the classical Sweet-Parker model for magnetic reconnection, incorporating viscosity effects and variable inflow conditions, and explores how these factors influence reconnection rates in different regimes.

Contribution

It extends the Sweet-Parker model by including viscosity and variable inflow parameters, providing new scaling relations and numerical insights into magnetic reconnection.

Findings

Reconnection rate scales as S^{-1/2} (1 + P_m)^{-1/4} in low P_m and resistivity regimes.

Higher P_m and resistivity lead to deviations from classical SP predictions.

Numerical simulations confirm the theoretical scaling relations and highlight the importance of viscosity effects.

Abstract

We revisit the well known Sweet-Parker (SP) model for magnetic reconnection in the framework of two dimensional incompressible magnetohydrodynamics. The steady-state solution is re-derived by considering a non zero viscosity via the magnetic Prandtl number $P_m$. Moreover, contrary to the original SP model, a particular attention is paid to the possibility that the inflowing magnetic field $B_e$ and the length of the current layer $L$ are not necessarily fixed and may depend on the dissipation parameters. Using two different ideally unstable setups to form the current sheet, namely the tilt and coalescence modes, we numerically explore the scaling relations with resistivity $\eta$ and Prandtl number $P_m$ during the magnetic reconnection phase, and compare to the generalized steady-state SP theoretical solution. The usual Sweet-Parker relations are recovered in the limit of small $P_m$ and $\eta$ values, with in particular the normalized reconnection rate being simply $S^{-1/2} (1 + P_m)^{-1/4}$, where $S$ represents the Lundquist number $S = LV_A/\eta$ ($V_A$ being the characteristic Alfv\'en speed). In the opposite limit of higher $P_m$ and/or $\eta$ values, a significant deviation from the SP model is obtained with a complex dependence $B_e (\eta, P_m)$ that is explored depending on the setup considered. We discuss the importance of these results in order to correctly interpret the numerous exponentially increasing numerical studies published in the literature, with the aim of explaining eruptive phenomena observed in the solar corona.