Endogenous Magnetic Reconnection and Associated Processes in Weakly Collisional Regimes

The driving factor an endogenous magnetic reconnection process lays within the layer where a drastic change of magnetic field topology occurs. For this a significant electron temperature gradient is required to be present in a magnetically confined plasma. The associated electron temperature fluctuations are anisotropic [1]. A localized class of mode involves a reconnected field ${\tilde{B}}_{x}$ of odd parity (as a function of the radial variable), contrary to the commonly considered reconnecting modes [2] associated with a finite effective resistivity. Since there are plasmas in the Universe with considerable electron thermal energy contents, the considered class of modes could be candidates to produce generation or conversion of magnetic energy and high energy particle populations [3]. With their excitation, these modes acquire momentum [3] in the direction of the main magnetic field and the body of the plasma column should recoil in the opposite direction. Purely resistive endogenous modes are identified in the limit where the “diamagnetic” frequencies are not important.

[1] B. Coppi,B. Basu, Phys. Lett. A, 382, 400 (2018).

[2] B. Coppi, Phys. Fluids, 8, 2273 (1965).

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