Session UO1 - Reconnection, Nonlinear Phenomena, and Turbulence.
ORAL session, Thursday morning, October 26
Room 301AB, Qu\'{e}bec City Convention Centre
Two parallel plasma filaments carrying electric current (current loops) are considered. The Ampere force induces the filaments' coalescence, which is accompanied by the reconnection of the poloidal magnetic field. Initially the loops rotate along the axii of symmetry. Each of the two loops would be in equilibrium in the absence of the other one.
The dynamics of the reconnection is numerically simulated using high-resolution numerical scheme for low-resistive magneto-hydrodynamics. The results of numerical simulation are presented in the form of computer movies.
The results show that the rotation strongly modifies the reconnection process, resulting in quasi-periodic (bursting) appearance and disappearance of a current sheet. Fast sliding motion of the plasma along the current sheet is a significant element of the complicated structure of reconnection (current-vortex sheet). The magnetic surfaces in the overal flow are strongly rippled by slow magnetosonic perturbations, so that the specific spiral structures form. This should result in the particle transport enhancement.