Slow shock formation and structure with sub‐Alfvénic shear flow in magnetic reconnection

Abstract

Slow shock formation and structure associated with magnetic reconnection are investigated in the presence of sub‐Alfvénic shear flow using a compressible resistive MHD model. It is found for the first time that one or two pairs of the slow shocks are formed in the inflow region away from the reconnection separatrices within compressible resistive MHD. The distributions of the slow shocks depend largely on the plasma beta and the shear flow velocity that lead to the increase of magnetic reconnection rate. One pair of the slow shocks is formed for β = 0.2 and two pairs of the slow shocks are generated for β = 1.0 with the shear flow velocity in the range 0.6 VA to 0.9 VA. For high plasma beta (β = 5.0), there is no slow shock formed outside the reconnection separatrices. The results can be applied to interpret slow shock observations at the dayside magnetopause.