Comments on the reconnexion rate of magnetic fields

Abstract

The reconnexion rate of magnetic fields is crucial in understanding the fields found in turbulent flows in the solar photosphere and in the galaxy, and in flare phenomena. This paper examines the behaviour of magnetic fields in the neighbourhood of an X-type neutral point. The treatment is kinematical, specifying the velocity field v and constructing solutions to the hydromagnetic equation for B. The calculations demonstrate that the reconnexion rate is controlled by the diffusion in the near neighbourhood of the neutral point, and is not arbitrarily large, as has been suggested by similarity solutions of the complete field and fluid equations for vanishing diffusion