Nonlinear Reconnection in Magnetized Turbulence

Dataset · Sun Jun 27 00:00:00 EDT 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/LGOKIK· OSTI ID:1884769

Loureiro, N. F.; Boldyrev, S.

Recent analytical works on strong magnetized plasma turbulence have hypothesized the existence of a range of scales where the tearing instability may govern the energy cascade. In this paper, we estimate the conditions under which such tearing may give rise to full nonlinear magnetic reconnection in the turbulent eddies. When those conditions are met, a new turbulence regime is accessed where reconnection-driven energy dissipation becomes common, rather than the rare feature that it must be when they are not. We conclude that while such conditions are very stringent for fluid-scale eddies, they are easily met for kinetic-scale eddies; in particular, we suggest that our arguments may help explain recent Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations of (so-called) electron-only reconnection and of energy dissipation via electron Landau damping in the Earthʼs magnetosheath.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Plasma Science and Fusion Center
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
• DOE Contract Number: SC0018266; SC0016215
• OSTI ID: 1884769
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS