HR: 15:00h
AN: SM43B-06    [Abstracts]
TI: The Effects of Topology on Magnetic Reconnection
AU: * Antiochos, S K
EM: antiochos@nrl.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, Code 7675, Washington, DC 20375 United States
AU: DeVore, R
EM: devore@lcp.nrl.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, Code 6440, Washington, DC 20375 United States
AU: Karpen, J T
EM: karpen@nrl.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, Code 7675, Washington, DC 20375 United States
AB: Magnetic reconnection is widely believed to be the dominant process by which plasma and magnetic field exchange energy in the cosmos. Although certain aspects of reconnection are universal, the nature of the process depends strongly on the particular topology of the reconnecting system. In the Earth's magnetosphere, the topology is fixed -- a four flux system with a pair of nulls and separators. In the Sun's corona, on the other hand, the topology can vary greatly depending on the complexity of the active region. We argue that the usual coronal topology is a two-flux system with an isolated 3D null, but four flux systems that are topologically equivalent to the magnetosphere are possible. We contrast and compare the dynamics of reconnection for these two topologies. We present both theoretical models and fully 3D simulations using ARMS, the NRL adaptively-refined MHD solver. The implications of the results for observations will be discussed. This work was supported in part by NASA and ONR.
UR: http://solartheory.nrl.navy.mil
DE: 7835 Magnetic reconnection
DE: 7843 Numerical simulation studies
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting