Three-Dimensional Reconnection between Two Colliding Magnetized Plasmas

Numerical simulation of a three-dimensional interaction between colliding high-β and low-β plasmas, notably, the interaction of the solar wind with the magnetosphere, shows that reconnection occurs along a line on the contact surface for θ>90^∘ and pointwise for θ<90^∘, where θ is the angle between the colliding field vectors; accordingly, the flux transport is very efficient for θ>90^∘. An interesting finding is that reconnection is driven by nonlinearly generated diamagnetic currents for almost all field angles θ.