Asymmetry and the plasmoid instability during magnetic reconnection in partially ionized chromospheric plasmas

Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous process in the partially ionized solar chromosphere. Recent 2D simulations have shown that the plasmoid instability onsets during partially ionized reconnection [1-3]. We use the plasma-neutral module of the HiFi framework to simulate the nonlinear evolution of the plasmoid instability during symmetric and asymmetric reconnection. These simulations model the plasma and neutrals as separate fluids and include ionization, recombination, the Hall effect, charge exchange, thermal conduction, and optically thin radiative cooling. As in previous simulations [1,2], an enhancement of plasma density in the current sheet and plasmoids leads to recombination being an important loss term in the plasma continuity equation. The Hall term leads to the development of significant out-of-plane magnetic fields in the current sheet region, but we do not observe shortening of the current sheet or acceleration of the reconnection rate as a result. Secondary merging of magnetic islands is modified by inflow asymmetry and often results in an enhancement of the core field in the resulting islands. [1] Leake et al. 2012, ApJ, 760, 109 [2] Leake et al. 2013, PhPl, 20, 062102 [3] Ni et al. 2015, ApJ, 799, 79