Properties of asymmetric magnetic reconnection

Properties of magnetic reconnection are investigated in two-dimensional, resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of current sheets separating plasmas with different magnetic field strengths and densities. Specific emphasis is on the influence of the external parameters on the reconnection rate. The effect of the dissipation in the resistive MHD model is separated from this influence by evaluating resistivity dependence together with the dependence on the background parameters. Two scenarios are considered, which may be distinguished as driven and nondriven reconnection. In either scenario, the maximum reconnection rate (electric field) is found to depend on appropriate hybrid expressions based on a magnetic field strength and an Alfven speed derived from the characteristic values in the two inflow regions. The scaling compares favorably with an analytic formula derived recently by Cassak and Shay [Phys. Plasmas 14, 102114 (2007)] applied to the regime of fast reconnection. An investigation of the energy flow and conversion in the vicinity of the reconnection site revealed a significant role of enthalpy flux generation, in addition to the expected conversion of Poynting flux to kinetic energy flux. This enthalpy flux generation results from Ohmic heating as well as adiabatic, that is, compressional heating. The latter is found more important when the magnetic field strengths in the two inflow regions are comparable in magnitude. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.