event
Tuesday 26 May 2020: Coalescence instability in partially ionised plasmas
Giulia Murtas - University of Exeter
Online - contact A. Hillier for webinar link 13:30-14:30
Magnetic reconnection takes place in various layers of the solar atmosphere, and plays a fundamental role in driving heating and explosive dynamics (e.g. jets). Following standard magnetohydrodynamics the reconnection rate is too slow to explain a wide range of phenomena observed in solar plasmas. A way to trigger fast reconnection is provided by the coalescence instability, which forms a turbulent reconnecting current sheet by driving plasmoid interaction. Unlike the processes occurring in fully-ionised coronal plasmas that have been the subject of extensive studies, still little is known about how magnetic reconnection develops in the partially ionised plasmas found in the lower atmosphere. In this talk I will discuss the role of partial ionisation on the development of fast reconnection through the study of 2.5D numerical simulations of coalescing plasmoids.