The excitation of reconnecting modes is commonly considered to rely solely on global properties of the current-density distribution. Here a class of simple resistive magnetohydrodynamic models is studied analytically to show that local properties of the current profile at the reconnecting surface become important in some realistic physical regimes.

• Received 16 March 1981

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.25.1786