A Resistive Magnetohydrodynamic Swarm Architecture for Interstellar Magnetic Sail Deceleration

This paper introduces a resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) framework for a distributed swarm-based magnetic sail system intended for interstellar deceleration. The model extends classical magnetic sail formulations by incorporating full MHD closure, including resistive induction, energy conservation, and Maxwell stress tensor force derivation. Unlike rigid-body magsail concepts, the proposed architecture treats the sail as a distributed plasma-interaction boundary formed by multiple interacting magnetic nodes. System-level behavior is analyzed under stochastic interstellar medium (ISM) conditions and node failure uncertainty. Results indicate that swarm redundancy introduces a nonlinear transition in system survivability consistent with percolation theory, while maintaining bounded deceleration dynamics under physically realistic constraints.