Hall MHD reconnection with an initial guide field By0 Original Research Article

An uniform out-of-plane magnetic field component By0 is added to the equilibrium Harris sheet with plasma β = 0.5 and Lc = 0.5di (where Lc is the half-width of the equilibrium current layer and di is the ion inertial length). Driven by the continuous boundary inflows, the magnetic reconnections with the guide field By0/B0 ranging from 0 to 4.0 are investigated using a 2.5D Hall magnetohydro-dynamic (MHD) code developed from a multi-step implicit scheme. The features of the reconnection field are substantially altered in the presence of the guide field. The openness of the magnetic separatrix angle is slightly reduced and the anti-symmetric quadrupolar structure of By field and the symmetric distribution of plasma pressure P are replaced by an asymmetric By four-wing structure and an asymmetric P plot as a non-zero By0 is added. The decoupling of electrons and ions also occurs near the X line in the case with a finite By0, but the effect of initial By0 on the electron flow is greater than that on the ion flow. The reconnection rates at the X-line drops from 0.151 to 0.06, namely, ∂A/∂t is reduced by a factor of 2.5 as By0/B0 increases from 0 to 4.0. The reduction of reconnection rate might be related to the reducing openness of reconnection layer with the increasing By0.