Collisionless tearing modes in the presence of shear flow

Tearing modes in a plane collisionless current sheet with shear bulk flow are studied. An analytic expression for the growth rate is obtained for the case \(M^2 = (1 - \varepsilon {\text{ sech}}^m \bar z)\) , whereM is the Mach number,m the shear flow index, ε a positive constant less than unity, and \(\bar z\) the (normalized) co-ordinate normal to the current sheet. The growth rates are large and the unstable wave number domain is increased as compared to the case without flow. The relevance of these results to time-dependent reconnection processes in the Earth's magnetosphere is discussed.