Resistive tearing growth rate modification by equilibrium flow
Date:
Poster presentation at COSPAR 2022, Athens, Greece.
Abstract. Ever since its discovery by Furth, Killeen, and Rosenbluth the resistive tearing instability has been a well-studied phenomenon related to magnetic reconnection and a conversion of magnetic energy into thermal and/or kinetic energy. This conversion of energy may result in solar flares. Since magnetic reconnection can be triggered by the resistive tearing instability, effects that may increase the tearing growth rate become of interest. Whilst the literature regularly claims that flow has a stabilising effect on the resistive tearing mode, a parametric study with the modern linear 1D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) spectral code Legolas has revealed that equilibrium flow can both increase and damp the tearing growth rate, depending on the parameter regime. Relevant parameters include, but are not limited to, the flow speed, the plasma-\(\beta\), and the angle between the flow and the wavevector, which contribute to the relation of flow shear versus magnetic shear.