Abstract
We present our recent results of the evolution of the plasmoid-chain in a Poynting dominated plasma. We model the relativistic current sheet with cold background plasma using the relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamic approximation, and solve its temporal evolution numerically. Numerical results show that the initially induced plasmoid triggers a secondary tearing instability. We find the plasmoid-chain greatly enhances the reconnection rate, which becomes independent of the Lundquist number, when this exceeds a critical value. Since magnetic reconnection is expected to play an important role in various high energy astrophysical phenomena, our results can be used for explaining the physical mechanism of them.
Highlights
Magnetic reconnection is a process that converts magnetic field energy into thermal and kinetic energy very efficiently
It is believed that magnetic reconnection plays an important role in various phenomena from the laboratory plasma to the astrophysical plasma
Since plasmoids move at approximately the Alfven velocity of the upstream flow unless the plasmoid inertia is comparable to the magnetic field energy, the escape time is of the order of tA
Summary
Magnetic reconnection is a process that converts magnetic field energy into thermal and kinetic energy very efficiently. Interest in the properties of relativistic magnetic reconnection has been growing, especially in Poynting-dominated plasmas, which are believed to be present in various high energy astrophysical phenomena. In those models, the Poynting energy of the plasma is assumed to be dissipated into thermal and kinetic energy almost completely at some distance from the central object. To study the evolution of the secondary tearing instability, we use a uniform, constant resistivity, and initialize the magnetic field with a perturbations localized at the origin. This enables us to understand the evolution of current sheets in which a tearing instability is triggered at a point
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