Magnetic Prandtl number dependence of plasmoid-mediated reconnection

[2605.18946] Magnetic Prandtl number dependence of plasmoid-mediated reconnection Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Search arXiv Press Enter to search · Advanced search Physics > Plasma Physics arXiv:2605.18946 (physics) [Submitted on 18 May 2026 ( v1 ), last revised 14 Aug 2026 (this version, v2)] Title: Magnetic Prandtl number dependence of plasmoid-mediated reconnection Authors: Vinay Kumar , Axel Brandenburg View a PDF of the paper titled Magnetic Prandtl number dependence of plasmoid-mediated reconnection, by Vinay Kumar and Axel Brandenburg View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: We investigate the dependence of the plasmoid-mediated magnetic reconnection rate on the magnetic Prandtl number using two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations of two coalescing magnetic islands. For Lundquist numbers below the onset of the plasmoid instability, the reconnection rate follows the expected Sweet-Parker scaling and decreases with increasing magnetic Prandtl number. However, once the current sheet becomes plasmoid unstable, the dependence on the magnetic Prandtl number weakens considerably. In the fully plasmoid-mediated regime, we find reconnection rates that remain nearly independent of the magnetic Prandtl number over the explored parameter range. We show that the largest reconnection rates are associated with strongly non-linear phases involving plasmoid interactions and mergers. We further compare our results with simulations of the boundary-driven Taylor problem, where previous studies reported a stronger magnetic Prandtl number dependence, and provide a possible explanation for the differing scalings obtained in the two setups. These results may have implications for reconnection-mediated decay in magnetically dominated turbulence and related astrophysical systems. Comments: 29 pages, 15 figures. Comments welcome! Subjects: Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph) ; High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) Report number: NORDITA 2026-066 Cite as: arXiv:2605.18946 [physics.plasm-ph] (or arXiv:2605.18946v2 [physics.plasm-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.18946 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Vinay Kumar [ view email ] [v1] Mon, 18 May 2026 18:00:01 UTC (3,204 KB) [v2] Fri, 14 Aug 2026 19:38:29 UTC (5,147 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Magnetic Prandtl number dependence of plasmoid-mediated reconnection, by Vinay Kumar and Axel Brandenburg View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: physics.plasm-ph < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-05 Change to browse by: astro-ph astro-ph.HE physics physics.flu-dyn References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab) Major funding support from

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