We study two dimensional turbulent magnetic reconnection in a compressible
fluid in the gas pressure dominated limit. We use open boundary conditions and
start from a Harris current sheet configuration with a uniform total pressure.
A small perturbation to the vector potential initiates laminar reconnection at
the Sweet-Parker rate, which is allowed to evolve for several dynamical times.
Subsequently sub-Alfvenic turbulence is produced through random forcing at
small wave numbers. The magnetic field topology near the current sheet is
strongly affected by the turbulence. However, we find that the resulting
reconnection speed depends on the resistivity. In contrast to previous results
in three dimensions, we find no evidence for fast reconnection. The
reconnection speed exhibits large variations but the time averages increase
smoothly with the strength of the turbulence.
Authors
Kulpa-Dybel K; Kowal G; Otmianowska-Mazur K; Lazarian A; Vishniac E