A Numerical Simulation of the Reconnection Layer in 2D Resistive MHD

TL;DR

This paper presents a detailed 2D numerical simulation of magnetic reconnection in resistive MHD, demonstrating evolution towards the Sweet--Parker steady state from various initial conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a realistic boundary condition approach and accounts for back pressure effects, advancing the simulation of reconnection layers in resistive MHD.

Findings

System evolves to Sweet--Parker steady state within a few Alfven times

Initial Petschek-like states also converge to the same steady state

Simulation incorporates realistic boundary conditions and back pressure effects

Abstract

In this paper we present a two-dimensional, time dependent, numerical simulation of a reconnection current layer in incompressible resistive magnetohydrodynamics with uniform resistivity in the limit of very large Lundquist numbers. We use realistic boundary conditions derived consistently from the outside magnetic field, and we also take into account the effect of the back pressure from flow into the the separatrix region. We find that within a few Alfven times the system evolves from an arbitrary initial state to a steady state consistent with the Sweet--Parker model, even if the initial state is Petschek-like.