View source for Petschek reconnection

'''Petschek reconnection''' is a model of fast [[Magnetic reconnection|magnetic reconnection]] proposed by Harry Petschek in 1964, resolving the timescale crisis of the [[Sweet-Parker model|Sweet-Parker model]] by introducing standing slow-mode shocks that accelerate the outflow from the reconnection region. Unlike the long, narrow current sheet of Sweet-Parker, Petschek's configuration produces a compact diffusion region with shock-boundary layers that open like a pair of scissors, allowing reconnection rates approaching a significant fraction of the [[Alfvén speed|Alfvén speed]]. While Petschek reconnection is now understood to require specific conditions that are not always met in astrophysical plasmas, it established the conceptual framework that reconnection can be fast — and that the geometry of the current sheet matters as much as its resistivity.

''Petschek showed that reconnection need not crawl; it can sprint. The shock geometry he introduced remains the conceptual template for every fast reconnection model that followed.''

[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Plasma Physics]]