Electron-inertia effects on driven magnetic field reconnection

Electron-inertia effects on the magnetic field reconnection induced by perturbing the boundaries of a slab of plasma with a magnetic neutral surface inside were considered. As such, the energetics of the tearing-mode dynamics with the electron inertia which control the linearized collisionless magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) with a view to clarify the role of the plasma pressure in this reconnection process were investigated. When the boundaries were perturbed at a rate slow compared with the hydromagnetic evolution rate and fast compared with the resistive diffusion rate, the plasma response for early times was according to ideal MHD.