Magnetic field structures in a magnetized plasma can rearrange themselves by a process called reconnection. Neil Cramer and Sergey Vladimirov have investigated reconnection in dusty magnetized plasmas. In high-temperature plasmas, as occur in a fluorescent light tube and in many astrophysical situations, the charged particles are primarily positively charged atomic nuclei and single electrons.
Magnetic fields threading a plasma can guide electric currents along intricate paths.
Two current filaments can sometimes merge into one as a result of reconnection, and the current paths are rearranged as the magnetic field structure changes. Reconnection can be both rapid and violent, producing shock waves, energetic particles, and tremendous heating of the plasma. This causes asymmetries in the plasma, because the dust particles are very massive and move very slowly compared with electrons and nuclei. The dust causes long-wavelength oscillations in the magnetic field upstream or downstream of a shock rather than those of much shorter wavelengths which occur in the absence of dust. Charged dust grains change the reconnection process by causing the current filaments to twist and rotate about each other like a giant catherine wheel, or to merge asymmetrically.