Abstract
A review of the present status of the theory of magnetic reconnection is given. First the basic concepts are introduced, the MHD equations, the generalized Ohm's law and the conservation laws. In strongly collisional plasmas reconnection proceeds via resistive current sheets, the theory of which is presented in some detail. At weak collisionality the reconnection dynamics is domainated by nondissipative effects, which in low-β plasmas are mainly the Hall term and electron inertia. The equations of electron magnetohydrodynamics are introduced, which allow a rather complete analysis of the reconnection configuration, yielding reconnection rates independent of the smallness parameters of the system. Including the coupling to the ions the reconnection rate is found to depend only on ion inertia. Hence collisionless reconnection can be very rapid proceeding essentially on the Alfven time scale.
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