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Magnetic Reconnection
A fundamental process of plasma physics in which magnetic fields diffuse through plasma in regions of enhanced current. It is extremely important because it can change the topology of the magnetic field and rapidly convert significant amounts of magnetic energy into bulk kinetic energy, thermal energy and accelerate particles. Three-dimensional reconnection is currently not well understood, although I have investigated a series of 3D numerical experiments looking at the interaction of opposite-polarity magnetic fragments to determine (i) the types of reconnection that occur, (ii) the rates of each type of reconnection and (iii) the ways in which the different reconnection processes evolve by looking at the internal flux of each magnetic fragment.
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