Competition for Management and Operation of Los Alamos National Laboratory

Reconnection is one of the key nonlinear processes in a plasma, in which great amounts of magnetic energy can be rapidly transformed and released via a change in magnetic topology. Field lines of opposite polarity flow together, annihilate, and release pent-up magnetic stress. Snapshots from one of our 2D test simulations (Fig 1) demonstrate key stages in magnetic reconnection. First, antiparallel magnetic field lines are brought together by an inflow in the <em>z</em> direction (the “upstream”). Second, the field lines begin reconnecting and an outflow forms in the <em>x</em> direction (the “downstream”). Finally, in the fully nonlinear stage, structures known as plasmoids are formed.. Authors: Benitez Hernandez, Imanol [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)]; Humphrey, Daniel Arthur [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)]. DOE Contract: 89233218CNA000001. Subjects: 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS