2D numerical simulation of the resistive reconnection layer

In this paper the authors present a two-dimensional numerical simulation of a reconnection current layer in incompressible resistive magnetohydrodynamics with uniform resistivity in the limit of very large Lundquist numbers. They use realistic boundary conditions derived consistently from the outside magnetic field, and they also take into account the effect of the backpressure from flow into the separatrix region. They find that within a few Alfven times the system reaches a steady state consistent with the Sweet-Parker model, even if the initial state is Petschek-like