Basic Pattern of Three-dimensional Magnetic Reconnection within Strongly Turbulent Current Sheets

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Wang, Yulei, Cheng, Xin, Ding, Mingde
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Wang, Yulei
Cheng, Xin
Ding, Mingde
author_facet Wang, Yulei
Cheng, Xin
Ding, Mingde
contents Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental mechanism of driving eruptive phenomena of different scales and may be coupled with turbulence as suggested by recent remote-sensing and in-situ observations. However, the specific physics behind the complex three-dimensional (3D) turbulent reconnection remains mysterious. Here, we develop a novel methodology to identify and analyze multitudes of multi-scale reconnection fragments within a strongly turbulent current sheet (CS) and apply it to a state-of-the-art numerical simulation of turbulent reconnection for solar flares. It is determined that the reconnection fragments tend to appear as quasi-2D sheets forming along local magnetic flux surfaces, and, due to strong turbulence, their reconnection flow velocities and reconnection rates are significantly broadened statistically but are scale-independent. Each reconnection fragment is found to be surrounded by strongly fluctuated in/out-flows and has a widely distributed reconnection rate, mainly in the range of 0.01-0.1. The results, for the first time, provide quantitative measurements of 3D magnetic reconnection in strongly turbulent flare CSs, offering insights into the cascading laws of 3D reconnection in other turbulent plasmas.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_04648
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Basic Pattern of Three-dimensional Magnetic Reconnection within Strongly Turbulent Current Sheets
Wang, Yulei
Cheng, Xin
Ding, Mingde
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Plasma Physics
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental mechanism of driving eruptive phenomena of different scales and may be coupled with turbulence as suggested by recent remote-sensing and in-situ observations. However, the specific physics behind the complex three-dimensional (3D) turbulent reconnection remains mysterious. Here, we develop a novel methodology to identify and analyze multitudes of multi-scale reconnection fragments within a strongly turbulent current sheet (CS) and apply it to a state-of-the-art numerical simulation of turbulent reconnection for solar flares. It is determined that the reconnection fragments tend to appear as quasi-2D sheets forming along local magnetic flux surfaces, and, due to strong turbulence, their reconnection flow velocities and reconnection rates are significantly broadened statistically but are scale-independent. Each reconnection fragment is found to be surrounded by strongly fluctuated in/out-flows and has a widely distributed reconnection rate, mainly in the range of 0.01-0.1. The results, for the first time, provide quantitative measurements of 3D magnetic reconnection in strongly turbulent flare CSs, offering insights into the cascading laws of 3D reconnection in other turbulent plasmas.
title Basic Pattern of Three-dimensional Magnetic Reconnection within Strongly Turbulent Current Sheets
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Plasma Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.04648