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Title: Turbulent Mangetohydrodynamic Reconnection Mediated by the Plasmoid Instability

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
 [1];  [1]
  1. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences, and Princeton Plasma Physics Lab.; Princeton Center for Heliophysics, NJ (United States); Max-Panck Princeton Center for Plasma Physics (MPPC), NJ (United States); Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas (CMSO), Madison, WI (United States)

It has been established that the Sweet–Parker current layer in high Lundquist number reconnection is unstable to the super-Alfvénic plasmoid instability. Past two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations have demonstrated that the plasmoid instability leads to a new regime where the Sweet–Parker current layer changes into a chain of plasmoids connected by secondary current sheets, and the averaged reconnection rate becomes nearly independent of the Lundquist number. In this work, a three-dimensional simulation with a guide field shows that the additional degree of freedom allows plasmoid instabilities to grow at oblique angles, which interact and lead to self-generated turbulent reconnection. The averaged reconnection rate in the self-generated turbulent state is of the order of a hundredth of the characteristic Alfvén speed, which is similar to the two-dimensional result but is an order of magnitude lower than the fastest reconnection rate reported in recent studies of externally driven three-dimensional turbulent reconnection. Kinematic and magnetic energy fluctuations both form elongated eddies along the direction of the local magnetic field, which is a signature of anisotropic magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. Both energy fluctuations satisfy power-law spectra in the inertial range, where the magnetic energy spectral index is in the range from -2.3 to -2.1, while the kinetic energy spectral index is slightly steeper, in the range from -2.5 to -2.3. Finally, the anisotropy of turbulence eddies is found to be nearly scale-independent, in contrast with the prediction of the Goldreich–Sridhar theory for anisotropic turbulence in a homogeneous plasma permeated by a uniform magnetic field.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI ID:
1565531
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 818, Issue 1; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 81 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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A maximum entropy principle for inferring the distribution of 3D plasmoids journal January 2018
Energy spectrum of tearing mode turbulence in sheared background field journal June 2018
Onset of fast “ideal” tearing in thin current sheets: Dependence on the equilibrium current profile journal March 2018
Wavelet methods for studying the onset of strong plasma turbulence journal December 2018
Diffusion regions and 3D energy mode development in spontaneous reconnection journal July 2019
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Analysis of fast turbulent reconnection with self-consistent determination of turbulence timescale journal October 2019
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The Dynamical Behavior of Reconnection-driven Termination Shocks in Solar Flares: Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations journal December 2018
Gamma-Ray Bursts Induced by Turbulent Reconnection journal September 2019
The Interplay of Magnetically Dominated Turbulence and Magnetic Reconnection in Producing Nonthermal Particles journal November 2019
Heliosheath Processes and the Structure of the Heliopause: Modeling Energetic Particles, Cosmic Rays, and Magnetic Fields text January 2017
Particle Acceleration during Magnetic Reconnection in a Low-beta Pair Plasma text January 2016
A Maximum Entropy Principle for inferring the Distribution of 3D Plasmoids text January 2017
Fast Magnetic Reconnection: "Ideal" Tearing and the Hall Effect text January 2017
Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence in the Plasmoid-Mediated Regime text January 2018
Role of the Plasmoid Instability in Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence text January 2018
Wavelet Methods for Studying the Onset of Strong Plasma Turbulence text January 2018
Diffusion regions and 3D energy mode development in spontaneous reconnection text January 2019
Spectral signatures of recursive magnetic field reconnection text January 2019
Scalings Pertaining to Current Sheet Disruption Mediated by the Plasmoid Instability text January 2019
3D Turbulent Reconnection: Theory, Tests and Astrophysical Implications text January 2020