Simulations of magnetic reconnection from centrifugal breakout

Abstract

This thesis is the first step toward the goal of modeling centrifugal breakout from massive stars while including realistic magnetic reconnection physics. We use a plasma-physics based approach to analyze the magnetic reconnection which occurs in a stellar magnetosphere during centrifugal breakout. We modify a magentohydrodynamic code and test it by simulating an Alfvén wave and a Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities. The properties of the wave and the growth rate of the instability are derived in order to confirm the code’s accuracy in the benchmarking. After this, a simple model of centrifugal breakout is developed which incorporates centrifugal force, gravity, and magnetic tension. Local density sources which imitate the accumulation of mass during centrifugal breakout are found to be a viable cause of magnetic reconnection.