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On the most typical structure of three-dimensional magnetic reconnection

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Abstract

Motivated by the problem of magnetic reconnection in turbulent astrophysical plasmas with a strong magnetic field, in particular, in solar flares, we have calculated the probability of occurrence of various topological structures of three-dimensional reconnection at the null point of a random magnetic field. We have established that the peculiar nonaxisymmetric structure with six asymptotic directions, the six-tailed structure, also called the improper radial null, plays a dominant role. All the remaining structures, in particular, the axisymmetric ones (the proper radial nulls), occur with a much lower probability. The fundamental feature of the six-tailed structure is that at large distances it is approximately reduced to the classical two-dimensional X-type structure.

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Correspondence to Yu. V. Dumin.

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Original Russian Text © Yu.V. Dumin, B.V. Somov, 2016, published in Pis’ma v Astronomicheskii Zhurnal, 2016, Vol. 42, No. 11, pp. 850–858.

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Dumin, Y.V., Somov, B.V. On the most typical structure of three-dimensional magnetic reconnection. Astron. Lett. 42, 774–781 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063773716110037

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