Evolution of the Reconnecting Internal Kink Mode

The best agreement between theory and experiments concerning the onset of magnetic reconnection is (probably) represented by the theory of the resistive internal kink mode [1]. Now there remains a need to explain the following observed evolution of the reconnection rate that involves the formation of a relatively large magnetic island and a local steepening of the electron temperature gradient. Thus, the effects that characterize a magneto-thermal reconnecting mode [2] are proposed to be compounded with those (e.g. total plasma pressure gradient) that lead to the excitation of the original $\left( {{m}^{0}}=1 \right)$ mode.

[1] B. Coppi, R. Galvão, R. Pellat, M. Rosenbluth, P. Rutherford, Fizika Plazmy (Soviet Journal of Plasma Physics) 2, 961 (1976).

[2] B. Coppi, B. Basu, and A. Fletcher, Nucl. Fusion, 57, 7 (2017).