Reconnection-Driven Energy Cascade in Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence
Abstract
Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence regulates the transfer of energy from large to small scales in many astrophysical systems, including the solar atmosphere. We perform three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations with unprecedentedly large magnetic Reynolds number to reveal how rapid reconnection of magnetic field lines changes the classical paradigm of the turbulent energy cascade. By breaking elongated current sheets into chains of small magnetic flux ropes (or plasmoids), magnetic reconnection leads to a new range of turbulent energy cascade, where the rate of energy transfer is controlled by the growth rate of the plasmoids. As a consequence, the turbulent energy spectra steepen and attain a spectral index of -2.2 that is accompanied by changes in the anisotropy of turbulence eddies. The omnipresence of plasmoids and their consequences on, e.g., solar coronal heating, can be further explored with current and future spacecraft and telescopes.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2210.10736,
title = {Reconnection-Driven Energy Cascade in Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence},
author = {Chuanfei Dong and Liang Wang and Yi-Min Huang and Luca Comisso and Timothy A. Sandstrom and Amitava Bhattacharjee},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.10736},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
32 pages, 8 figures, the world's largest 3D MHD turbulence simulation using a fifth-order scheme