On the abrupt growth dynamics of nonlinear resistive tearing mode and the viscosity effects

The nonlinear evolution of the resistive tearing mode exhibits an abrupt growth after an X-point collapse once the magnetic island exceeds a certain critical width Δ′wc for large instability parameter Δ′, leading to a current sheet formation [N. F. Loureiro et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 235003 (2005)]. In this work, we investigate the underlying mechanism of the X-point collapse as well as the current sheet formation including the viscosity effects, based on a secondary instability analysis. The secondary instability is excited due to the quasilinear current modification by the zonal current. In particular, it is identified that the current peaking effect is plausibly responsible for the onset of the X-point collapse and the current sheet formation, leading to the explosive growth of reconnected flux. In the presence of finite viscosity, the Δ′wc scaling with the resistivity gets modified. A transition behavior is revealed at Pr≈1 for the viscosity dependence of Δ′wc and the linear tearing instability. However, the explosive growth seems to be independent of the viscosity in the magnetic Prandtl number Pr<1 regime, while large viscosity plays a strong dissipation role.