SYMMETRY-BREAKING BIFURCATIONS OF A CURRENT SHEET

Using a time evolution code with periodic boundary conditions, the viscoresistive hydromagnetic equations describing an initially static, planar current sheet with large Lundquist number have been evolved for times long enough to reach a steady state. A cosh2 x resistivity model was used. For long periodicity lengths Lp, the resistivity gradient drives flows that cause forced reconnection at X point current sheets. Using L p as a bifurcation parameter, two new symmetry breaking bifurcations were found: a transition to an asymmetric island chain with nonzero, positive, or negative phase velocity, and a transition to a static state with alternating large and small islands. These states are reached after a complex transient behavior, which involves a competition between secondary current sheet instability and coalescence. © 1990 American Institute of Physics.