Effect of a guide field on the turbulence like properties of magnetic reconnection

What is it about?

Our work expands on the recent progresses made in the inter-relationship between two of the ubiquitous plasma phenomenon, magnetic reconnection, and turbulence. Previously, the magnetic energy spectrum, and the energy transfer characteristics of a laminar antiparallel reconnection was shown to be like that of a decaying turbulence (Adhikari et al. Physics of Plasmas 27, 042305 (2020), Adhikari et al. Phys. Rev. E 104, 065206). This work highlights that these turbulence-like properties of reconnection are independent of an external magnetic field (guide field). In addition, this work also discusses the physical meaning of the von-Karman Howarth equation, a pathway often used to study energy transfer in turbulence.

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Photo by Didssph on Unsplash

Photo by Didssph on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study is particularly important to the interplay between reconnection and turbulence as it opens up a possible insight that the characteristics, we often use to describe turbulence might be fundamental to reconnection. If this is true, we might be looking into some sort of universality between reconnection and turbulence. On the other hand, this study explicitly focusses on the von Karman Howarth equation to expand on the limited exposure of turbulence in the reconnection community.

Perspectives