Evolutionary of Discontinuous Plasma Flows in the Vicinity of Reconnecting Current Layers

Abstract

The question about the interpretation of numerical experiments on magnetic reconnection in solar flares is considered. A correspondence between the standard classification of magnetohydrodynamic discontinuities and the parameters characterizing the mass flux through a discontinuity and the magnetic field configuration has been established within a classical formulation of the problem on discontinuous magnetohydrodynamic flows. A pictorial graphical representation of the relationship between the angles of the magnetic field vector relative to the normal to the discontinuity plane on both its sides has also been found. The relations between the parameters of a two-dimensional discontinuous flow have the simplest form in a frame of reference where the magnetic field lines (B) are parallel to the matter velocity (u) the de Hoffmann–Teller frame. The question about the transformation of the magnetic field configuration when passing to a “laboratory” frame of reference where (v ⋅B)≠0, i.e., an electric field is present, is considered in this connection. The result is applied to the analytical solution of the problem on the magnetic field structure in the vicinity of a reconnecting current layer obtained previously by Bezrodnykh et al. The regions of nonevolutionary shocks are shown to appear near the endpoints of a current layer with reverse currents.