Abstract
Numerical simulations of the magnetic reconnection process in a current sheet show that, in some cases, MHD shocks appear to be attached to edges of the sheet. The appearance of the shocks may be considered to be a result of splitting of the sheet. In the present paper we suppose that this splitting takes place in consequence of non-evolutionarity of the reconnecting current sheet as a discontinuity. The problem of time evolution of small perturbations does not have a unique solution for a non-evolutionary discontinuity, and it splits into other (evolutionary) discontinuities. Such an approach allows us to determine conditions under which the splitting of the-sheet occurs. The main difficulty of this approach is that a current sheet is not reduced to a classified 1D discontinuity, because inhomogeneity of flow velocity inside the sheet is two-dimensional. To formulate the non-evolutionarity problem, we solve the linear MHD equations inside and outside the sheet and deduce linearized 1D boundary conditions at its surface. We show that for large enough conductivity, small perturbations exist which interact with the sheet as with a discontinuity. Then we obtain a non-evolutionarity criterion, with respect to these perturbations, in the form of a restriction on the flow velocity across the surface of the sheet.
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Markovsky, S.A., Somov, B.V. Non-evolutionarity of a reconnecting current sheet as a cause of its splitting into MHD shocks. Sol Phys 158, 43–69 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00680834
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00680834