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Published on: February 1, 2017
Subion-Scale Turbulence Driven by Magnetic Reconnection
D Manzini1,2, F Sahraoui1, F Califano2
1Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas (LPP), CNRS, École Polytechnique, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris-Saclay, Observatoire de Paris, 91120 Palaiseau, France.
Abstract:
The interplay between plasma turbulence and magnetic reconnection remains an unsettled question in astrophysical and laboratory plasmas. Here, we report the first observational evidence that magnetic reconnection drives subion-scale turbulence in magnetospheric plasmas by transferring energy to small scales. We employ a spatial "coarse-grained" model of Hall magnetohydrodynamics, enabling us to measure the nonlinear energy transfer rate across scale ℓ at position x. Its application to Magnetospheric Multiscale mission data shows that magnetic reconnection drives intense energy transfer to subion-scales. This observational evidence is remarkably supported by the results from Hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell simulations of turbulence to which the coarse-grained model is also applied. These results can potentially answer some open questions on plasma turbulence in planetary environments.
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