Reconnection of orthogonal (NN6) Baxial=1+cos(r*pi/R) flux tubes
Lundquist number S=R*vA/(pi*eta)=5600
Initial peak velocity magnitude: vA/30, as opposed to
4vA/30, where vA is the peak
initial Alfven speed.
Field in vertical tube runs top to bottom, in horizontal tube
runs left to right (so mutual helicity is negative, reconnection
should generate left handed twist).
Isosurfaces of B=Bmax/3 (not normalized)
tvA*pi/R=[0,776,1320],
tvA*pi/R=[1420,1620,2490]
Click on image for movie
Below: fieldlines running through lagrangian trace
elements placed in the plasma.
Only fieldlines running through
elements initially in the vertical flux tube are shown.
The horizontal flux tube is in front of the vertical flux tube
from this viewpoint.
Fieldline area at any point along the fieldline
is proportional to |B| there. Any part of a fieldline at |B| less
than 1/10th of the global maximum is not plotted.
tvA*pi/R=[0,776,1320],
tvA*pi/R=[1420,1620,2490]
Click on image for movie
Same as above, but with color indicating the strength
of Eparallel.
Energy vs time for the reconnection simulation and the reference
simulations.
The reference simulation is a single tube and the same S with no
initial velocity.
For this figure/movie, the fieldline radius at any point along the fieldline
is proportional to Eparallel=eta*J.B/|B| there, normalized by the peak Eparallel
in the whole simulation.
As Eparallel is a measure of reconnection, this emphasizes those fieldlines
which are reconnecting at any point in time.
Note the frame rate is not uniform, there are 3 times the frames per unit
time during the peak of the reconnection activity (from 3/6 to 4/6 of the way
through the simulation) as at other times.
Diagonal slices of B, J, and v : the diagional direction
is along y=z (bottom left to top right in fieldline figure above)
so that the component of magnetic field
common to both flux tubes initially points straight into
the page: thus this creates the equivalent 2.5D view of the centerplane
of this 3D simulation.
The times for the panels in these three figures are:
tvA/R=[0.,1000.,1300.,1500.,2000.,3000.]
Current:
Velocity:
The peak velocities at each timestep, normalized by the peak Alfven speed at each
step, are: [0.03, 0.08, 0.20, 0.31, 0.20, 0.10]
