Transition to turbulent electric current sheet reconnection

Abstract

Electric current sheets develop in the solar corona when different flux systems come into contact. At these sheets magnetic energy is transformed into heat and kinetic energy by means of reconnection. We have previously demonstrated how to accelerate neutral sheet energy conversion by means of a transition to turbulent reconnection via ideal, three-dimensional secondary instabilities, as conjectured by Montgomery. In this paper we describe how our previous results are modified by the presence of a finite mean sheetwise magnetic field. We find a stabilization from this field, due to a decrease in energy transfer from the basic magnetic field to the three-dimensional perturbed fields. An increase in perturbed dissipative energy losses is also observed.