SM31C-4197:
The Role of Orientation of Magnetic Fields in Contact Discontinuities
Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Tsung-Che Tsai1, Wen Chieh Hsieh2 and Jih Kwin Chao2, (1)National Center for High-Performance Computing, Hsinchu, Taiwan, (2)National Central University, Institute of Space Science, Jhongli, Taiwan
Abstract:
Contact discontinuities are one type of the discontinuities in MHD plasma. Contact discontinuities are discontinuities with continuous magnetic fields but without plasma flows across a plasma density jump. Contact discontinuities are characterized by a remarkable plasma density jump but identical plasma bulk velocity, magnetic fields and thermal pressure on two sides of the discontinuity. Contact discontinuities are rarely observed in the nature. Due to a rapid diffusion of plasma along the continuous magnetic field lines across its surface, it is believed that contact discontinuities will rapidly broaden into a smooth transition then lose its identity. In this presentation, we study the effect of the orientation of magnetic field lines on the diffusion of plasma in contact discontinuities. With respect to the normal of a contact discontinuity, the cases of orientation of (1) parallel, (2) quasi-parallel, (3) perpendicular and (4) quasi-perpendicular magnetic fields are studied.
