Magnetic Reconnection in Different Environments: Similarities and Differences

This chapter addresses two important aspects of magnetic reconnection: time-dependent rates affected by island formation and the preferred direction of the reconnection line if merging magnetic field components are not anti-parallel. While it is widely known that magnetic reconnection facilitates mass, momentum, and energy transport in plasmas, it is illustrative to consider an analytical approach to describing the efficacy of reconnection as a transport mechanism. The chapter performs a detailed analysis of the correlation between diffusion region dimensions and reconnection rate. For this purpose, it employs open boundary condition calculations of a continuously driven reconnecting system. In summary, results indicate that the magnetic reconnection line in asymmetric systems is preferentially oriented in such a way that it bisects the direction of the asymptotic magnetic field direction on both inflow sides. This orientation is identical to the one for which the product of available magnetic energy is maximized.