Preface ........................................................ xi
1 Introduction ................................................. 1
Part I Setting the scene .................................... 5
2 Sites of activity ............................................ 7
2.1 Geospace ................................................ 7
2.2 Solar atmosphere ....................................... 16
2.3 Other sites ............................................ 22
3 Plasma models ............................................... 25
3.1 Single particle motion ................................. 26
3.2 Kinetic models ......................................... 29
3.3 Fluid models ........................................... 35
3.4 Chew-Goldberger-Low momentum equation .................. 39
3.5 On the validity of MHD models for space plasmas ........ 40
3.6 Electron magnetohydrodynamics, Hall current ............ 41
3.7 Initial and boundary conditions ........................ 42
3.8 Conservation laws ...................................... 42
3.9 Discontinuities ........................................ 48
Part II Quiescence ......................................... 55
4 Introduction ................................................ 57
5 Magnetohydrostatic states ................................... 61
5.1 General properties ..................................... 61
5.2 Symmetric MHS states ................................... 76
5.3 Examples of exact solutions ............................ 85
5.4 Asymptotic expansions .................................. 93
6 Particle picture of steady states .......................... 107
6.1 General properties .................................... 107
6.2 Systems with translational invariance ................. 108
6.3 Adiabatic particle motion ............................. 114
6.4 Regular and chaotic particle motion ................... 116
7 A unified theory of steady states .......................... 123
7.1 Steady states without gravity ......................... 124
7.2 Inclusion of the gravity force ........................ 127
7.3 Symmetric states ...................................... 129
8 Quasi-static evolution and the formation of thin current
sheets ..................................................... 133
8.1 Introduction .......................................... 133
8.2 Perturbed Harris sheet ................................ 135
8.3 MHD tail model with flux transfer ..................... 140
8.4 TCS from boundary deformation ......................... 151
8.5 Vlasov approach to quasi-static evolution ............. 156
8.6 Further aspects ....................................... 168
Part III Dynamics ......................................... 181
9 Nonideal effects ........................................... 185
9.1 Generalized Ohm's law ................................. 185
9.2 Resistivity ........................................... 187
9.3 Microturbulence ....................................... 190
9.4 Non-turbulent kinetic effects ......................... 200
10 Selected macroinstabilities ................................ 203
10.1 Stability concepts .................................... 203
10.2 Ideal MHD stability ................................... 204
10.3 The resistive tearing instability ..................... 235
10.4 Collisionless tearing ................................. 249
10.5 Variational principle for 2D collisionless plasmas .... 254
11 Magnetic reconnection ...................................... 269
11.1 Introduction .......................................... 269
11.2 Two-dimensional fluid models .......................... 271
11.3 Kinetic reconnection in 2D collisionless plasmas ...... 297
11.4 Inclusion of the third dimension ...................... 305
11.5 Kinematics of 3D reconnection ......................... 311
11.6 Remark on relativistic covariance ..................... 340
12 Aspects of bifurcation and nonlinear dynamics .............. 343
12.1 Bifurcation ........................................... 343
12.2 A statistical mechanics approach to 2D current sheet
bifurcation ........................................... 355
12.3 Role of perturbations ................................. 361
12.4 Self-organized criticality ............................ 364
12.5 Low-dimensional modelling ............................. 364
Part IV Applications ...................................... 367
13 Magnetospheric activity .................................... 371
13.1 Interaction between the solar wind and the
magnetosphere ......................................... 371
13.2 Convection and pressure crisis ........................ 378
13.3 Magnetospheric substorms .............................. 385
13.4 Further large-scale processes ......................... 398
13.5 Statistical and nonlinear dynamics aspects ............ 400
13.6 Discussion ............................................ 403
14 Models of solar activity ................................... 407
14.1 General aspects ....................................... 407
14.2 Model constraints and boundary conditions ............. 412
14.3 Arcade models of solar flares ......................... 416
14.4 Coronal mass ejections ................................ 424
14.5 Further aspects ....................................... 431
15 Discussion ................................................. 433
15.1 The reconnection problem .............................. 433
15.2 A general eruption scheme ............................. 438
Appendix 1 Unified theory: details and derivations ............ 441
Appendix 2 Variational principle for collisionless plasmas .... 451
Appendix 3 Symbols and fundamental constants .................. 465
References .................................................... 469
Index ......................................................... 503
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