PHYSICS OF PLASMAS 18, 111211 (2011)

Magnetic reconnection in partially ionized plasmas

Ellen G. Zweibel,1,a) Eric Lawrence,2,b) Jongsoo Yoo,2,c) Hantao Ji,2,d)
Masaaki Yamada,2,e) and Leonid M. Malyshkin3,f)
1
Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, 475 North Charter Street, Madison,
Wisconsin 53706, USA
2
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, P. O. Box 451, Princeton, New Jersey 08543, USA
3
Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago,
Illinois 60637, USA
(Received 29 April 2011; accepted 6 October 2011; published online 9 November 2011)
We review the theory of magnetic reconnection in weakly ionized gases. The theory is relevant to
reconnection in the interstellar medium, protostellar and protoplanetary disks, the outer envelopes of
cool stars, and a new laboratory experiment. In general, partial ionization introduces three effects
beyond the obvious one: increased resistivity due to electron-neutral collisions. First, magnetic
neutral sheets are steepened by plasma-neutral drift, setting up the conditions for reconnection.
Second, when ion-neutral friction is strong, the effective ion mass is increased by q/qi, the ratio of
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
total to plasma mass density. This reduces the Alfven speed vA by a factor of q=qi and increases the
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ion skin depth di by q=qi . As a result, entrainment of neutrals slows MHD reconnection but permits
the onset of fast collisionless reconnection at a larger Lundquist number S, or for a longer current
sheet, than in the fully ionized plasma case. These effects, taken together, promote fast collisionless
reconnection when the ionization fraction is of order 10% to 1%, but reconnection is slowed down for
much smaller ionization fractions. Finally, ion-neutral friction can be a strong heating mechanism
throughout the inflow and outflow regions. These effects are under study at the Magnetic Reconnec-
tion Experiment (MRX). V C 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3656960]

I. INTRODUCTION modes, the steepening of neutral sheets by ion-neutral fric-

tion and fast magnetic merging within them, and conditions
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process in
for the onset of the Hall effect in steady, neutral sheet recon-
plasma physics.1,2 Understanding reconnection in astrophysi-
nection. In Sec. III, we discuss the prospects for studying
cal plasmas presents serious challenges. The range of relevant
these processes in the laboratory and show some preliminary
lengthscales and timescales is usually extreme, diagnostics
results. Section IV is a summary.
are based on remote sensing, and the system may have novel
features not encountered in conventional laboratory plasmas. II. THEORY
One such feature is a very low ionization fraction. The
ionization fraction in the solar chromosphere and in the so- We consider three fluids: electrons, a single species of
called warm neutral interstellar medium is of order 102, in singly charged ions, and a single species of neutrals. We
the dense interstellar clouds where stars are formed it can be assume quasineutrality (ne ¼ ni), and thus need only the con-
as low as 107, and in protostellar and protoplanetary accre- tinuity equations for ions and neutrals
tion disks and the atmospheres of brown dwarf stars it can be
1010 or even less. Although at the lowest ionization fraction @qi
þ r  ðqi ui Þ ¼ fqn  aq2i ; (1)
the electrical conductivity itself disappears, the large physical @t
size of many astrophysical plasmas makes their Lundquist @qn
þ r  ðqn un Þ ¼ fqn þ aq2i ; (2)
number S itself very large, and reconnection is the most im- @t
portant process for dissipating magnetic energy and changing
the magnetic topology. This point is becoming widely appre- where f and a are the ionization and recombination rate coef-
ciated; see, for example, Refs. 3 and 4. Thus, it is important ficients, respectively. The momentum equations for the three
to understand reconnection in partially ionized gases. species are
In Sec. II of this paper, we review the theory of recon-  
ue  B
nection in partially ionized gases, including, in order of de- 0 ¼ ni e E þ  rPe  qe en ðue  un Þ
velopment, the effect of ion-neutral friction on MHD tearing c
 qe ei ðue  ui Þ; (3)
 
a) Di ui ui  B
Electronic mail: [email protected]. qi ¼ ni e E þ  rPi  qi in ðui  un Þ
b)
Electronic mail: [email protected]. Dt c
c)
Electronic mail: [email protected].  qi ie ðui  ueÞ; (4)
d)
Electronic mail: [email protected].
e)
Electronic mail: [email protected].
Dn un
qn  rPn  qn ni ðun  ui Þ  qn ne ðun  ue Þ; (5)
f)
Electronic mail: [email protected]. Dt

1070-664X/2011/18(11)/111211/5/$30.00 18, 111211-1 C 2011 American Institute of Physics

V
111211-2 Zweibel et al. Phys. Plasmas 18, 111211 (2011)

where Ds/Dt : (@ t þ us  $) and  ab, the rate at which spe- MHD, was originally proposed by Mestel and Spitzer.8 The
cies a collides with species b, can be written resulting drift velocity is
 ab ¼ mbnbhrviab/(ma þ mb). Here, hrviab is the rate coeffi-
cient; r is the cross section, v the relative velocity in the cen- JB
uD  ui  un ¼ : (8)
ter of mass frame, and the brackets denote averaging over qi in c
the velocity distribution. Note that qa ab ¼ qb ba, so in a
Again, neglecting plasma inertia, the center of mass velocity
weakly ionized gas ni =in ¼ qi =qn  1. In Eqs. (3)–(5), we
u is approximately the neutral velocity un. Using Eq. (8), one
have represented momentum exchange between species as a
can then write the ion velocity as ui  uD þ u. When the
simple drag force. More general expressions which account
Hall effect is unimportant (it can easily be included), the
for momentum gained or lost by chemical reactions are given
magnetic induction equation can then be written as
in Ref. 5. We have neglected electron inertia in Eq. (3) and
assumed all the pressures are isotropic scalars. It is shown in  
@B JB
Ref. 6 that the drag of electrons on neutrals can be ignored in ¼ r  ðu  BÞ þ r   B þ gr2 B: (9)
@t qi in c
calculating the bulk momentum, although electron-neutral
collisions affect the resistivity. The first term on the right hand side of Eq. (9) represents
Adding Eqs. (3) and (4), neglecting electron-neutral drag induction by the bulk flow u. It is fictitious in the sense
compared with ion-neutral drag,6 and using J : eni(ui  ue) that it is the plasma flow, not the bulk, primarily neutral
gives the plasma momentum equation fluid flow that is responsible for induction. The second
  term represents the difference between the bulk flow and
@ JB
qi þ ui  r ui ¼ rðPe þ Pi Þ þ the plasma flow and corrects the first term. Because the
@t c plasma and neutral flows would be the same in the ab-
 qi in ðui  un Þ; (6) sence of magnetic forces, the second term is nonlinear in
B. The third term is Ohmic diffusion (simplified by the
used in all MHD treatments.
assumption of constant resistivity g). The drift of mag-
Equations (1)–(6) have several especially important lim-
netic field with respect to the bulk flow, represented by
its for the reconnection problem. The effect of partial ioniza-
the second term, was dubbed “ambipolar diffusion” by
tion on the MHD tearing mode in slab geometry, with a
Mestel and Spitzer.8
strong guide field, was first calculated in Ref. 7. In that case
Equation (9) can also be written in terms of the Cowling
the motions are incompressible and 2D. Assuming an ect
resistivity (Ref. 9; see also Refs. 10 and 11)
time dependence for the tearing perturbations, it can be
shown that the effect of ion-neutral collisions on the plasma @B
dynamics is to multiply the plasma inertia term by a factor of ¼ r  ðu  BÞ  cr  ðgJk þ gc J? Þ; (10)
@t
1 þ  in/(c þ  ni). This leads to the tearing mode dispersion
relation where J||,\ are the projections of J parallel and perpendicular
  to B, respectively, and gc : g þ B2/(qi inc2) is the Cowling re-
5 in sistivity in the limit qi =qn  1. To allow for arbitrary neutral
c 1þ ¼ c5 ; (7)
c þ ni fraction, gc  g should be multiplied by a factor of (qn/q)2.
Equation (9) takes a particularly simple form when
where c* is the tearing mode growth rate in the plasma alone u ¼ 0 and the fieldlines are straight, say B ¼ ^zBðx; tÞ. Then,
(but with electron-neutral collisions included in the resistiv- Eq. (9) becomes
ity). Equation (7) shows that the stability criterion for tearing
@B @ B2 @B @2B
modes is unaffected by ion-neutral friction, but the growth ¼ þg 2 : (11)
rate is affected. In a weakly ionized system, if the growth time @t @x 4pqi in @x @x
c1 is longer than the neutral-ion collision time ni 1
, the
plasma and the neutrals are well coupled, and c  c*(qi/qn)1/5. Equation (11) shows that in slab geometry, ambipolar drift
This result could p beffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
derived by replacing the plasma Alfven acts like nonlinear diffusion, with diffusivity v2Ai =in . If B has
speed p  B= 4pqi by the bulk Alfven speed
vAiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi a null plane, the magnetic field gradient near it becomes large.
vA  B= 4pq, assuming q  qn. On the other hand, if In the absence of resistivity, Eq. (11) has a steady state solu-
c in , the growth time is shorter than the ion-neutral colli- tion of the form B ! x1/3. It was shown in Ref. 12 that an ini-
sion time in 1
, and neutrals have no effect on the tearing tially linear magnetic profile B ! x steepens to B ! x1/3, and
mode. Similar estimates for steady reconnection are also pre- that the component reversals of a magnetic field passively
sented in Ref. 7. sheared by differential rotation are steepened in the same way.
Ion-neutral collisions have a much larger effect on recon- The physics of the steepening is straightforward: the magnetic
nection in neutral sheets, with no guide field present. If the pressure gradient drives the plasma toward the null; the field-
ionization fraction is very low, and collisions are strong, it is lines are carried along, and the magnetic profile steepens
permissible to neglect plasma pressure and inertia in Eq. (6) further.
and simply balance the Lorentz force with ion-neutral friction. The B ! x1/3 solution has singular current and infinite
This treatment, which is analogous to balancing the Lorentz drift uD at x ¼ 0. The effects of resistivity and the buildup of
and drag forces on electrons to derive Ohm’s law in resistive a plasma pressure gradient remove this singularity. However,
111211-3 Magnetic reconnection in partially ionized plasmas Phys. Plasmas 18, 111211 (2011)

if these effects are small, the electric current will still and
become large, and the fieldlines can merge rapidly. This situa-  1=2
tion was considered in Ref. 13, where it was shown that under ~
mi m
L < 0:48kmfp ; (15)
conditions typical in the interstellar medium, the ion pressure me
buildup is limited by rapid recombination, leaving resistivity
as the primary effect which removes the singularity. In this pa- for Hall mediated reconnection. The result that ion-neutral
rameter regime, the magnetic merging rate is essentially the friction increases the critical current sheet length for onset of
Sweet-Parker reconnection velocity (gvAi/L)1/2, but with the Hall mediated reconnection could be important for astrophy-
outflow time L/vAi replaced by the recombination time; a simi- sics, because the critical current sheet lengths are otherwise
lar result was found in Ref. 14. Under these conditions, mag- quite short. pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
netic merging can be a very fast process. However, because The intermediate regime vAi =in < L < vAi =in q=qi
recombination removes only plasma pressure, not magnetic smoothly connects the cases of weak (L < vAi/ in) and strong
pressure, even a weak guide field quenches rapid merging.15 (L > vA/ ni) ion-neutral coupling. The rate of frictional heating
Collisionless, or Hall mediated, reconnection has Hin ¼ qi in v2D is very large in the intermediate regime and
received much attention as a possible mechanism for fast accounts for a substantial fraction of the energy dissipated in
reconnection. Experiment, theory, and simulation for a fully reconnection.
ionized plasma have all shown that when Thus, we have shown that ion-neutral friction introduces
pffiffiffi the Sweet-Parker
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
reconnection layer thickness dSP ¼ L= S ¼ Lg=vAi is less a second characteristic Alfven speed, based on the total den-
than the ion skin depth di, the Hall effect comes into play1,2 sity, into the reconnection problem. This, by itself, slows
(here, L is the length of the current sheet and we have written reconnection down, and is the primary effect on the MHD
vAi to emphasize that this condition has been studied primar- tearing mode. Neutral sheet reconnection, however, can be
ily for a fully ionized plasma). Writing the diffusivity g in speeded up, because the current layer is steepened. And
terms of the electron skin depth de and electron collision finally, through increasing the ion skin depth, collisions pro-
time with all species se as g ¼ d2e =se and using vAi ¼ xcidi, mote the onset of fast reconnection—although the effect of a
This criterion can be written as guide field has not yet been considered. Which of these
effects can be observed in the laboratory?
L < di xce se ; (12)

for collisionless reconnection, where xce is the electron III. LABORATORY EXPERIMENT
gyrofrequency and collision time, respectively. It is shown in
Ref. 16 that Eq. (12) can also be written in terms of the elec- An experimental campaign18 to study reconnection in
tron mean free path kmfp as partially ionized plasmas is underway at the Magnetic
Reconnection Experiment (MRX) facility.19 One focus of
 1=2 our studies is to evaluate the effect of ion-neutral coupling
mi
L < 0:48kmfp ; (13) on reconnection. MRX already has a number of diagnostics
me for measuring the magnetic field and plasma density and
temperature, but we have recently performed spectroscopic
where kmfp is estimated assuming the plasma pressure in the
measurements of the neutral density. We measure the passive
reconnection layer is equal to the upstream magnetic pres-
emission from neutral lines (typically Hb and Db or various
sure. Equation (13) makes the connection between Hall
He lines) using a optical probe previously developed for ion
reconnection and collisionality more explicit.
spectroscopy studies.20 The probe has a line of sight limited
Recently, the steady state reconnection equations, allow-
to a length of 2–5d, where d is the current sheet half-width,
ing for ion-neutral friction and the Hall effect, have been an-
allowing us to make localized measurements around the cur-
alyzed6 according to the method developed in Ref. 17. This
rent sheet.
allows a more precise analysis of steady state reconnection
The spectrometer has been calibrated to read absolute
than in Ref. 7 and can be generalized to include the Hall
spectral radiance, and so we can compute the integrated emis-
effect. In this work, it was shown that the dynamical effects
sivity of the spectral line and the density of excited atoms in
of ion-neutral friction can be represented by a normalized
the collection volume. Population ratio coefficients calculated
effective ion mass m ~  meff =mi . When the ion-neutral colli-
1 using a collisional-radiative model21 are then used to deter-
sion time in exceeds the reconnection outflow time at the
mine the density of ground state atoms (i.e., the neutral den-
ion Alfven speed L/vAi, m ~ 1, and collisions with neutrals
sity). Additionally, neutral temperature and flow can be
have a little effect on MHD reconnection or on the criterion
measured from standard Doppler broadening and line shifts.
for the onset of Hall reconnection. When the neutral-ion col-
1 In Table I, we show shot-averaged plasma and neutral
lision time in is less than the reconnection outflow time at
parameters for three initial hydrogen fill pressures. Fill pres-
the bulk Alfven speed ~  qn =qi , the effective Alfven
pffiffiffiffiL/vA, m sure can be controlled to within 0.2 mTorr, allowing us to
speed is vp A ¼
ffiffiffiffi vAi = m~ , and the effective ion skin depth
closely scan nn/ne from 3 to35. Note that the neutral density
becomes di m ~ . Equations (12) and (13) generalize to
is not a linear function of the static fill pressure. Processes
pffiffiffiffi such as neutral pumping22 likely reduce the neutral density
L < di xce se m~; (14) in the core plasma. Spatial profiles of neutral pressure and
111211-4 Zweibel et al. Phys. Plasmas 18, 111211 (2011)

TABLE I. Typical plasma and neutral parameters for high gas fill pressure
MRX discharges.

P (mTorr) 21 25 29

nn (cm3) 1.1  1014 1.6  1014 2.5  1014

ne (cm3) 3.3  1013 3.6  1013 0.72  1013
Te (eV) 6.8 7.9 7.8
vA (cm/s) 6.3  106 6.4  106 5.0  106

FIG. 1. Hall parameter ratio [Eq. (17)] vs. nn/ni for Te ¼ 8 eV,
their role in the reconnection process will be investigated in ni ¼ 3  1013 cm3.
future experiments.
Characterizing the effect of neutrals on quantities such Figure 1. Collision times were determined using classical
as the reconnection rate, effective resistivity, and ion- values for electron-ion collisions10 and tabulated cross sec-
electron scale separation is still in progress, but we can use tions for elastic electron-hydrogen collisions.25 Based on this
the neutral density measurements to determine accessible pa- analysis, the addition of neutrals to MRX plasmas should
rameter regimes. As described in Sec. II, ion-neutral cou- increase the critical current sheet length by as much as a fac-
pling is determined by the relative value of the current sheet tor of 2 at nn/ni 20.
length L to theptwo parameters given in Sec. II: vAi/ in and
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi It should be noted that for the plasma parameters given
vAn =ni ¼ ðqn = qi ðqi þ qn ÞÞvAi =in . above, we already have dSP < di without the addition of neu-
To estimate  in, we take the cross section to be trals. Therefore, we plan to examine how different parameters
rin ¼ 7  8  1015 cm2 and independent of energy. This is scale as the effective mass is increased well beyond the fully
based on tabulated values of cross sections for charge ionized case. Refinement of the plasma production techniques
pffiffiffiffi
exchange23 and momentum transfer.24 In this case, the may allow us to create conditions with di < dSP < di m ~ in
Maxwellian-averaged collision frequency is given by the future.
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi In Ref. 6, an expression was given for the normalized
min 8T rate of heating due to ion-neutral friction
in ¼ nn rin ; (16)
mi pmin
Qin ~ð1  v~2 Þ
where min is the reduced mass mimn/(mi þ mn), and T is the  ; (18)
Em 1 þ q~v~2
ion and neutral temperature ( 3 eV in these cases).
In Table II, we show the relative length scales for a two where Qin is ion-neutral frictional heating, Em is the rate of
sets of experimental parameters. The current sheet length L magnetic energy supplied to the reconnection layer,
was determined using 2D magnetic probe array measure- q~ ¼ qn =qi , ~ is  in normalized to the ion outflow velocity
ments. In both cases, we are at least in the intermediate cou- gradient vi/Li, and v~ is the ratio of the neutral to ion outflow
pling regime and should be able to produce conditions in the velocity gradients. In the weakly coupled case, the right
strong coupling regime. hand side of Eq. (18) is small because ~ is small, while in the
Increasing the neutral density has two competing effects strongly coupled case, it is small because v~ 1: In the inter-
on the Hall scale length in Eq. (14): increased electron- mediate coupling case, the heating rate is predicted to be rel-
neutral collisionality will decrease the Hall scale length, atively large since there is a significant frictional slip
while the larger effective ion mass will increase it. Plasma between the ions and neutrals. We find that for the intermedi-
parameters then determine which effect is dominant. The net ate coupling case shown above (P ¼ 29 mTorr), this equation
effect can be seen in the ratio of Eqs. (12) and (14): predicts that 10% of the supplied magnetic energy will be
rffiffiffiffi dissipated through ion-neutral friction. This may be experi-
se q
; (17) mentally detectable, and we plan to study such heating in the
sei qi future.
where sei is the electron collision time with ions only and we
have assumed strong coupling ðm ~ q=qi Þ. We plot the val- IV. CONCLUSIONS
ues of this ratio for MRX parameters as a function of nn/ne in
Partial ionization is a common state in astrophysical
plasmas. For many purposes, these multi-species gases can
TABLE II. Measured current sheet length L and ion-neutral coupling pa-
be treated as a single fluid. However, because magnetic
rameters for two sample experimental conditions. In the first case ions and
neutrals are expected to be strongly coupled (vAn/ ni < L), while the coupling reconnection is essentially a boundary layer phenomenon,
is intermediate (vA/ in < L < vAn/ ni) in the second case. the plasma and the neutrals can decouple on the reconnection
scale. If the ionization fraction is low, partial decoupling can
P (mTorr) vA/ in (cm) vAn/ ni (cm) L (cm) lead to the formation of intense current layers around mag-
21 4.0 6.3 8 netic neutral sheets, which facilitates rapid magnetic merg-
29 1.4 8.1 5 ing. Other effects—the effect of partial ionization of tearing
mode growth rates, the rate of steady MHD reconnection,
111211-5 Magnetic reconnection in partially ionized plasmas Phys. Plasmas 18, 111211 (2011)

1
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