SPRG Seminars

October 16, 2012:

"Emerging Link Between Magnetic Reconnection and Cascading Turbulence"

H. Karimabadi, UC San Diego/Sciber-Quest

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Kinetic studies of magnetic reconnection and driven turbulence have generally been treated as separate subjects. However, recent advances in particle simulations have led to a dramatic change in our understanding of collisionless magnetic reconnection. Similarly, we are for the first time enable to conduct simulations of turbulence which span a range of scales from fluid to kinetic while providing a rigorous description of the physics. Here, we present an overview of these recent advances and show the intimate connection between collisionless reconnection and cascading turbulence. The implications of these results for understanding turbulence in the magnetosphere and in the solar wind are discussed. In particular, we address questions regarding the physics of dissipation, excitation of waves, and the structure of the turbulence.