Explosive and oscillatory tearing-mode instability in gyrotropic plasmas

Linear theory of resistive tearing-mode instability in gyrotropic plasmas has predicted that for large pressure anisotropy of pperpendicular>pparallel the eigenmode is not purely exponential but contains oscillation with the overall growth rate much larger than the isotropic case. This paper shows that such solutions may develop in the nonlinear anisotropic magnetohydrodynamic model; in particular, the X-line and O-line take place alternatively with magnetic islands growing and saturated with oscillation period of about ten Alfven transit times. The growth rate is on the order of the Alfven time scale and the plasma flow velocity may reach the Alfven speed. The presence of the mirror-mode wave may result in magnetic bottle structure on top of the X- and O-lines that is responsible for the enhanced growth rate and oscillation of magnetic reconnection