Reconnection events in two-dimensional Hall magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita della Calabria, I-87036 Cosenza (Italy)
- Departamento de Fisica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires and Instituto de Fisica de Buenos Aires, CONICET, Buenos Aires (Argentina)
- Bartol Research Institute and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716 (United States)
- Department of Physics, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506 (United States)
The statistical study of magnetic reconnection events in two-dimensional turbulence has been performed by comparing numerical simulations of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and Hall magnetohydrodynamics (HMHD). The analysis reveals that the Hall term plays an important role in turbulence, in which magnetic islands simultaneously reconnect in a complex way. In particular, an increase of the Hall parameter, the ratio of ion skin depth to system size, broadens the distribution of reconnection rates relative to the MHD case. Moreover, in HMHD the local geometry of the reconnection region changes, manifesting bifurcated current sheets and quadrupolar magnetic field structures in analogy to laminar studies, leading locally to faster reconnection processes in this case of reconnection embedded in turbulence. This study supports the idea that the global rate of energy dissipation is controlled by the large scale turbulence, but suggests that the distribution of the reconnection rates within the turbulent system is sensitive to the microphysics at the reconnection sites.
- OSTI ID:
- 22086130
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 9; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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