Magnetic reconnection discovery

[mchargue]

I’m not sure if this applies well to what FF wants to do, but it may be germane, so I thought I’d post it, and let you look it over.

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Experiments discover a 3-D process by which magnetic reconnection can release energyfaster than expected by classical theories.
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The article is here,
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-11-d-magnetic-energy-fast.html

[delt0r]

This result has long been suspected. Aka really hot solar corona for example. However its difficult to do the math since you can’t assume non resistive MHD among other things.

[mchargue]

delt0r wrote: This result has long been suspected. Aka really hot solar corona for example. However its difficult to do the math since you can’t assume non resistive MHD among other things.

” non resistive MHD”… In this, or another article link I posted, there was made mention that hot plasma conducts electricity like a superconductor. If it wasn’t in the article I posted here, it’ll be in one of the articles I listed in another post.

[delt0r]

Hot plasma is not like a superconductor. Sure the resistance is lower than copper, but still important. ie you cannot get magnetic reconnection without resistance. When doing MHD approximation the resistance is often assumed to be zero, that is you assume the magnetic field lines are frozen wrt to the fluid/plasma. Again however there is a lot of effects that cannot be modeled with this approach.

[mharratsc]

From the article:
“Experiments show that when the reconnection rate spikes in this 3-D configuration, the high current ropes are ejected out of the reconnection region, leading to a sudden decrease in the current density. The researchers have termed this process a “current layer disruption.”

Aren’t they simply renaming an exploding double-layer? o.O

And what’s with this ‘magnetic reconnection’ bunk? You’re seriously not talking about reconnecting lines in a 3 dimensional vector field, are you? Like topographical lines on a map??

Mike H.

[Author]

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