Magnetic reconnection in line tied systems

Ellen Zweibel, Yi Min Huang, Chris Hegna, Vladimir Mirnov, Carl Sovinec

Magnetic fieldlines in the coronae of accretion disks and stars, and in
certain laboratory plasmas, are effectively tied to a conducting boundary.
Because such boundaries are incompatible with helical perturbations, 
there are no
rational surfaces. Nevertheless, reconnection can occur. We discuss 
instabilities, reconnection, and energy release in simple
models of twisted filaments.