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Merging of plasma currents.

J Bergmans¹, T J Schep

¹FOM-Instituut voor Plasmafysica Rijnhuizen, Association Euratom-FOM, TEC, Postbus 1207, 3430 BE Nieuwegein, The Netherlands. bergmans@rijnh.nl

Physical Review Letters

|November 3, 2001

Summary

Strongly magnetized plasma filaments merge due to Lorentz forces, forming single structures. Magnetic reconnection transforms the topology from a figure eight to a circle.

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Area of Science:

Plasma physics
Magnetohydrodynamics
Computational physics

Background:

Understanding current filament merging is crucial for plasma dynamics.
Strongly magnetized plasmas exhibit complex behaviors.
Previous models often lack detailed dynamic simulations.

Purpose of the Study:

To describe the merging process of current filaments in a strongly magnetized plasma.
To investigate the role of Lorentz forces in filament interaction.
To analyze the resulting magnetic field topology changes.

Main Methods:

Utilized a contour dynamics method for accurate simulation.
Tracked piecewise constant distributions of conserved quantities.
Modeled the interaction of two screened currents.

Main Results:

Dipolar vortical flows developed in interacting currents.
Lorentz forces between aligned currents drove filament merging.
Magnetic reconnection occurred, altering the magnetic topology.
The magnetic topology transitioned from a figure eight to a circular configuration.

Conclusions:

Current filament merging is driven by Lorentz forces in magnetized plasmas.
Contour dynamics method accurately captures the merging and reconnection dynamics.
The study elucidates the topological transformation during magnetic reconnection.

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