Related papers: Collisionless Reconnection in Magnetohydrodynamic …
The debate surrounding fast magnetic energy dissipation by magnetic reconnection has remained a fundamental topic in the plasma universe, not only in the Earth's magnetosphere but in astrophysical objects such as pulsar magnetospheres and…
In space and astrophysical plasmas, like in planetary magnetospheres, as that of Mercury,energetic electrons are often found near current sheets (CSs), which hints at electron acceleration by magnetic reconnection. Unfortunately, electron…
We propose that pressure anisotropy causes weakly collisional turbulent plasmas to self-organize so as to resist changes in magnetic-field strength. We term this effect "magneto-immutability" by analogy with incompressibility (resistance to…
Energy dissipation in collisionless plasmas is a longstanding fundamental physics problem. Although it is well known that magnetic reconnection and turbulence are coupled and transport energy from system-size scales to sub-proton scales,…
Modeling collisionless magnetic reconnection rate is an outstanding challenge in basic plasma physics research. While the seemingly universal rate of an order $\mathcal{O}(0.1)$ is often reported in the low-$\beta$ regime, it is not clear…
Turbulence is ubiquitous in astrophysical fluids. Therefore it is necessary to study magnetic reconnection in turbulent environments. The model of fast turbulent reconnection proposed in Lazarian & Vishniac 1999 has been successfully tested…
We present 2D MHD numerical simulations of tearing-unstable current sheets coupled to a population of non-thermal test-particles, in order to address the problem of numerical convergence with respect to grid resolution, numerical method and…
Microscopically, collisionless reconnection in thin current sheets is argued to involve `composite electrons' in the ion inertial (Hall current) domain, a tiny fraction of electrons only. These `composite electrons' are confined to lower…
We present a full two-fluid magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) description for a completely ionized hydrogen plasma, retaining the effects of the Hall current, electron pressure and electron inertia. According to this description, each plasma…
We analyze particle acceleration in explosive reconnection events in magnetically dominated proton-electron plasmas. Reconnection is driven by large-scale magnetic stresses in interacting current-carrying flux tubes. Our model relies on…
Previously, using an incompressible von K\'arm\'an-Howarth formalism, the behavior of cross-scale energy transfer in magnetic reconnection and turbulence was found to be essentially identical to each other, independent of an external…
Compressible turbulence, especially the magnetized version of it, traditionally has a bad reputation with researchers. However, recent progress in theoretical understanding of incompressible MHD as well as that in computational capabilities…
Astrophysical reconnection takes place in a turbulent medium. The turbulence in most cases is pre-existing, not caused by the reconnection itself. The model of magnetic reconnection in Lazarian & Vishniac (1999) predicts that in the…
We present numerical studies of 3-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in a strongly magnetized medium in the extremely relativistic limit, in which the inertia of the charge carriers can be neglected. We have focused on strong…
A minimal model for magnetic reconnection and, generally, low-frequency dynamics in low-beta plasmas is proposed. The model combines analytical and computational simplicity with physical realizability: it is a rigorous limit of gyrokinetics…
During magnetic reconnection in collisionless space plasma, the electron fluid decouples from the magnetic field within narrow current layers, and theoretical models for this process can be distinguished in terms of their predicted current…
Kraichnan (1965) proposed that MHD turbulence occurs as a result of collisions between oppositely directed Alfv\'en wave packets. Recent work has generated some controversy over the nature of non linear couplings between colliding Alfv\'en…
A nested polyhedra model has been developed for magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. Driving only the velocity field at large scales with random, divergence free forcing results in a clear, stationary $k^{-5/3}$ spectrum for both kinetic…
We study the role of the Hall current and electron inertia in collisionless magnetic reconnection within the framework of full two-fluid MHD. At spatial scales smaller than the electron inertial length, a topological change of magnetic…
Collisionless fast-magnetosonic shocks are often treated as smooth, planar boundaries, yet observations point to organized corrugation of the shock surface. A plausible driver is upstream turbulence. Broadband fluctuations arriving at the…