THE STATISTICAL-MECHANICS OF RECONNECTING FLUX LOOPS AND CONSEQUENCESFOR MASSIVE STAR-FORMATION

We present a simple model that describes the reconnection process for a collection of magnetic flux loops in an astrophysical system. We der ive and solve the master kinetic equations for reconnecting flux loops in a plasma with B less than or equal to 1 (where beta is the ratio o f the gas pressure to the magnetic field pressure). The solution is a similarity solution for the distribution, N(Phi, M, t), of flux loops as a function of magnetic flux Phi, mass M, and time t, and it is give n by N(Phi, M, t)similar to t(-1)Phi(-2)M(-1), where the power-law ind ices are determined by the cross-sectional interaction and the physics of the flux loops. We discuss applications to star formation. In part icular, we find that this reconnection process can lower the flux-to-m ass ratio in portions of the system and can thereby provide sites for massive star formation. In addition, kinetic models such as those cons idered here may provide a means of calculating the distribution of clu mp masses (and fluxes) within molecular clouds.