Yes.
Zeuzzz - PLOT THE FIELD. It looks EXACTLY like the one in that wiki article.
You mean the same wiki article that has not been able to cite any references on this actually occuring for nearly a year now? OK.
I'll even do it for you: here are three plots of [latex]${\bf B} = a x {\bf \hat y} + b y {\bf \hat x}$[/latex].
Going left to right this is b=3,a=1, then b=1,a=1, then b=1, a=3. I've colored the field vectors to make the reconnection easier to see (regions where the field is pointing mostly vertically are colored blue, mostly horizontally are red).
[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/imagehosting/thum_2059447e5026c590c3.jpg[/qimg][qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/imagehosting/thum_2059447e5027561374.jpg[/qimg][qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/imagehosting/thum_2059447e5027dcf729.jpg[/qimg]
You have three choices - either you can
not believe your eyes (in which case plot it yourself and show us),
not believe that this field satisfies Maxwell's equations (in which case show us why not), or
shut up and admit you were wrong or lying.
Pretty graphs.
I know what is claimed to be happening in magnetic reconnection.
You are doing this again Sol, I asked you numerous times to show that this can actually occur, instead you yet again just show the
theory of what is supposed to be happening.
Let me tell you how I see it. Magnetic fields are not
made up of field lines, every magnetic field is a continuum, a vector field. Each of the infinite points in this continuum has a magnitude, and a direction, that is associated with it. When you draw in field lines, they are not an actual point on the field where anything is different, they are just describing the strength of a section of the field. However, the lines themselves do not actually exist in reality. They are simply a visualization device; a useful way to understand the properties of a vector field. The loci are always endless (closed) loops. They are useful abstractions and nothing more.
You can see this lack of understanding by some of the explanations given on the
magnetic reconnection page, lets have a look at some of their vagueness;
The most common type of magnetic reconnection is separator reconnection, in which four separate magnetic domains exchange magnetic field lines.
What exactly is being exchanged here?
field lines on one side of the separatrix all terminate at a particular magnetic pole, while field lines on the other side all terminate at a different pole of similar sign.
Field lines (an abstract tool to help conceptualize a vector field) are now capable of
terminating ? Could someone please outline for me what occurs in this 'termination' procedure?
what is actually terminating?
It is a violation of an approximate conservation law in plasma physics,
I dont have to comment on that one.
In separator reconnection, field lines enter the separator from two of the domains, and are spliced one to the other
I am not sure I know what "splicing" means, scientifically speaking.
and can concentrate mechanical or magnetic energy in both space and time.
Oh great, not we have energy in an abstract dimension aswell, time.
Domains in a magnetic plasma are separated by separatrix surfaces: curved surfaces in space that divide different bundles of flux.
Just as i thought, the process thought to be releasing energy through magnetic reconnection looks
incredibly similar to the setup used in a standard tokamak to achieve confinement fusion.
http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200605/000020060506A0116350.php
Method for Detection of Separatrix Surface Using Differential Double Probe
A method of detecting the separatrix surface in the edge plasma in a Tokamak is presented. Two sets of double probes whose front surfaces are shifted by a small distance are mounted and the difference of the currents is measured using a differential amplifier. When the separatrix surface reaches the probes, a current increment appears in the differential amplifier, giving a signal of the arrival of the separatrix. Procedures for obtaining plasma parameters including the ion temperature are also described. (author abst.)
Since magnetic confinement fusion is a well established fusion energy production method, i would find this far more plausable than something based on the vague notion that magnetic field lines can do actual physical things. If you can show me the
data of magnetic field lines reconnecting, then that certainly would be interesting. So far no-one seems able to.
At any instant of time, the net sum of all magnetic flux entering any closed surface, usually denoted A, is zero, ie, ∇ · B = 0. Where the field is strong, such as at the poles of an electromagnet, the lines come close together. However, the lines themselves do not actually exist, and so a 'reconnection' process based on the lines themselves doing something physical is an erroneous concept from the start.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1974935/posts
Hannes Alfvén was an electrical engineer who struggled to understand and eliminate the destructive explosions that occurred on high voltage transmission lines in his native Sweden. He determined that the energy being released so calamitously was originally stored in the magnetic fields that surround the electrical currents being transmitted along the lines. Any abrupt interruption of those currents leads to an explosive energy release. He said:
"In the case of the instability leading to the extinction of the current, it should be remembered that every electric circuit is explosive in the sense that if we try to disrupt the current, a release of the whole inductive energy at the point of disruption will occur." - H. Alfvén, Cosmic Plasma, Reidel, Holland, Boston, 1981, p.27.
Alfvén extrapolated his findings about terrestrial power lines to the study of magnetized cosmic plasma. In the case of the disruption of an electric current within such a plasma, he said, “If the current disruption is caused by an instability in the plasma, the inductive energy in the circuit will be released in the plasma. … The disruption of a current through a plasma is often caused by a double layer becoming unstable.”
Astrophysicists ignore Alfvén’s work. They attempt to arrive at a de novo explanation for the release of such energy by embracing the notion that the motion and interaction of magnetic field lines is its root cause. They expound on the (basically false) idea that magnetic fields are ‘frozen into’ plasma, and by moving and breaking, these lines carry the plasma along and spew it out into space.
Alfvén ridiculed this explanation by saying, “A magnetic field line is by definition a line which is everywhere parallel to the magnetic field. If the current system changes, the shape of the magnetic field line changes but it is meaningless to speak about a translational movement of magnetic field lines.” - Alfvén, op cit, p.12. Despite his warnings about this, astrophysicists persist in the notion that moving and interacting magnetic field lines – independent of any electrical current causality – produce the release of energy and plasma during solar flares. They have named this process ‘reconnection’.
The standard explanation of reconnection is that magnetic field lines move and eventually come together (‘short-circuit’) at some point. There they change their structure (reconnect) and move apart. But magnetic field lines as such cannot move or touch each other. A compounding error is made in assuming that plasma is ‘attached’ to those lines and will be bulk transported by this movement of the lines. So in coming up with this novel hypothesis they have reinvented the wheel. But not only is this hypothesis an unnecessary ‘reinvention’, it is based on erroneous concepts and has no clarifying value.
Hannes Alfvén was explicit in his condemnation of the reconnecting concept:
"Of course there can be no magnetic merging energy transfer. Despite.. this, we have witnessed at the same time an enormously voluminous formalism building up based on this obviously erroneous concept." [...........]
I thought you would have known better than that.
