Evolution of the Reconnecting Internal Kink Mode*

The best agreement between theory and experiments concerning the onset of magnetic reconnection is (probably) represented by the theory of the resistive internal kink mode [1]. Now there remains a need to explain the following observed evolution of the reconnection rate that involves the formation of a relatively large magnetic island and a local steepening of the electron temperature gradient. Thus, the effects that characterize a magneto-thermal reconnecting mode [2] are proposed to be compounded with those (e.g. total plasma pressure gradient) that lead to the excitation of the original $\left( {{m}^{0}}=1 \right)$ mode. 

[1] B. Coppi, R.  Galvão, R. Pellat, M. Rosenbluth, P. Rutherford, Fizika Plazmy (Soviet Journal of Plasma Physics) 2, 961 (1976).

 [2] B. Coppi, B. Basu, and A. Fletcher, Nucl. Fusion, 57, 7 (2017).