Abstract
The phenomenon of magnetic reconnection and its importance and role in many plasma dynamic phenomena are introduced and described in detail. The stationary reconnection models of Sweet-Parker and Petschek are described before analyzing the resistive instabilities of current sheets and, in particular, the tearing mode. The chapter concludes with reconnection instabilities of thin sheets, or plasmoid instabilities, and the consequent general nonstationary behavior of reconnection processes.
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© 2015 Springer-Verlag Italia
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Chiuderi, C., Velli, M. (2015). Magnetic Reconnection. In: Basics of Plasma Astrophysics. UNITEXT for Physics. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-5280-2_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-5280-2_9
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Publisher Name: Springer, Milano
Print ISBN: 978-88-470-5279-6
Online ISBN: 978-88-470-5280-2
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