On the resistive diffusion of force-free magnetic fields

Abstract

Reid and Laing recently conjectured on the general behaviour of resistive force- free magnetic fields in a slab model following a numerical study. However, the basic properties of resistive force-free magnetic fields had been established previously. We use and extend some results from the previous work to show that the conjecture of Reid and Laing is incorrect. A general analytic treatment of the problem provides the correct physical properties that Reid and Laing were unable to deduce from their numerical solutions. A criticism is also given of the results presented in another numerical study treating cylindrical resistive forcefree magnetic fields, by the same authors.