Plasma beta limits for magnetic annihilation models

被引:13
作者
Inverarity, GW
Priest, ER
机构
[1] Sch. of Math./Computational Sciences, University of St. Andrews
关键词
D O I
10.1063/1.871950
中图分类号
O35 [流体力学]; O53 [等离子体物理学];
学科分类号
070204 ; 080103 ; 080704 ;
摘要
Magnetic annihilation occurs when two oppositel!y directed magnetic fields are brought together by a plasma flow. Several exact nonlinear solutions exist which typically depend on the ratios of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure (the plasma beta), inflow speed to global Alfven speed (the Alfven Mach number) and of the advective to diffusive terms of the induction equation (the Lundquist number). Ensuring that the plasma pressure is everywhere positive restricts the freedom of choice of these parameters, however. Restrictions on the plasma beta are derived for the cases of two- and three-dimensional annihilation and two-dimensional reconnective annihilation At the inflow speeds typically required for fast reconnection in diffuse astrophysical plasmas the minimum plasma beta is several orders of magnitude larger than the observed values of unity or less. In other words, at the observed plasma beta the models are only valid for extremely small annihilation rates. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.
引用
收藏
页码:3591 / 3598
页数:8
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