Comment on "On the correspondence between forced magnetic reconnection and Alfven resonances" [Phys. Plasmas 7, 3808 (2000)]

In a recent paper Vekstein [Phys. Plasmas 7, 3808 (2000)] argued that the correspondence between the forced magnetic reconnection based on Alfven resonance theory given by Uberoi and Zweibel [J. Plasma Physics 62, 345 (1999)] is not true. It is shown that the argument by Vekstein based on the asymptotic smooth decay of resonant absorption power in a resistive magnetohydrodynamic plasma for long wavelengths is not correct as in such a system there are two separate dissipative regimes determined by wavelength and resistivity for the wave decay. Solutions for long wavelength disturbances as considered by Uberoi and Zweibel have the behavior of decaying tearing normal modes for high values of the resistivity. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.