Instability of the Sweet Parker reconnection layer and onset of fast turbulent reconnection

Within purely resistive MHD without any anomolous effects reconnection sets into a steady state knox to center around an elongated current sheet, the Sweet-Parker (SP) layer, where dissipations allow reconnection. However, such layer is known to be possibly unstable to tearing-like modes. A recent discovery [1,2] is that following the destabilisation of the SP layer reconnection can develop into a fast trubulent regime. This new regime requires no anomlous processes and it is purely resistive MHD, progressing as fast as the fastests kinetic or MHD processes. We investigate such transition. \\[4pt] [1] Self-Feeding Turbulent Magnetic Reconnection on Macroscopic Scales Giovanni Lapenta, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 235001 (2008), DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.235001 \\[0pt] [2] Turbulent Magnetic Reconnection in Two Dimensions: Loureiro, N. F.; Uzdensky, D. A.; Schekochihin, A. A.; Cowley, S. C.; Yousef, T. A.: eprint arXiv:0904.0823