TY - JOUR
T1 - Reconnection-driven energy cascade in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
AU - Dong, Chuanfei
AU - Wang, Liang
AU - Huang, Yi Min
AU - Comisso, Luca
AU - Sandstrom, Timothy A.
AU - Bhattacharjee, Amitava
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This work was partially supported by NASA grants 80NSSC19K0621 and 80NSSC21K1326, DOE grants DE-SC0021205 and DESC0021254, and DOE under contract number DE-AC02-09CH11466.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgments:W eacknowledgefruitfuldiscussionswithM.Zhou,S.Cerri,N.Liu, M.Lingam,Y .Chen,G.Hammett,S.Cowley,andA.Burrows.Resourcessupportingthiswork werepro vided bytheNASAHigh-EndComputing(HEC)ProgramthroughtheNASAAdvanced Supercomputing(NAS)DivisionatAmesResearchCenter.W ealsowouldliketoacknowledge high-performancecomputingsupportfromCheyenne(doi:10.5065/D6RX99HX)pro vided by NCAR’s CISL, sponsored by NSF , and from National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center,aDOEOfficeofScienceuserfacility.Funding:Thisworkwaspartiallysupportedby NASAgrants80NSSC19K0621and80NSSC21K1326,DOEgrantsDE-SC0021205andDE-SC0021254,andDOEundercontractnumberDE-A C02-09CH11466. Authorcontributions:All oftheauthorsmadenotablecontributionstothiswork.C.D.andY .-M.H. designedthe simulationforthisstudy;C.D.carriedoutthesimulationsofMHDturbulence;C.D.,L.W ., Y .-M.H., L.C.,andT .A.S. analyzedthesimulationresults;C.D.,L.W ., Y .-M.H., L.C.,andA.B.wrotethepaper; and all authors read the paper. Competing interests: The authors declare that they hav e no competinginterests.Dataandmaterialsavailability:Alldataneededtoevaluatethe conclusionsinthepaperarepresentinthepaperand/ortheSupplementaryMaterials.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 The Authors, some rights reserved;
PY - 2022/12/7
Y1 - 2022/12/7
N2 - Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence regulates the transfer of energy from large to small scales in many astrophysical systems, including the solar atmosphere. We perform three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations with unprecedentedly large magnetic Reynolds number to reveal how rapid reconnection of magnetic field lines changes the classical paradigm of the turbulent energy cascade. By breaking elongated current sheets into chains of small magnetic flux ropes (or plasmoids), magnetic reconnection leads to a previously undiscovered range of energy cascade, where the rate of energy transfer is controlled by the growth rate of the plasmoids. As a consequence, the turbulent energy spectra steepen and attain a spectral index of −2.2 that is accompanied by changes in the anisotropy of turbulence eddies. The omnipresence of plasmoids and their consequences on, for example, solar coronal heating, can be further explored with current and future spacecraft and telescopes.
AB - Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence regulates the transfer of energy from large to small scales in many astrophysical systems, including the solar atmosphere. We perform three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations with unprecedentedly large magnetic Reynolds number to reveal how rapid reconnection of magnetic field lines changes the classical paradigm of the turbulent energy cascade. By breaking elongated current sheets into chains of small magnetic flux ropes (or plasmoids), magnetic reconnection leads to a previously undiscovered range of energy cascade, where the rate of energy transfer is controlled by the growth rate of the plasmoids. As a consequence, the turbulent energy spectra steepen and attain a spectral index of −2.2 that is accompanied by changes in the anisotropy of turbulence eddies. The omnipresence of plasmoids and their consequences on, for example, solar coronal heating, can be further explored with current and future spacecraft and telescopes.
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U2 - 10.1126/sciadv.abn7627
DO - 10.1126/sciadv.abn7627
M3 - Article
C2 - 36475799
AN - SCOPUS:85143564916
SN - 2375-2548
VL - 8
JO - Science advances
JF - Science advances
IS - 49
M1 - eabn7627
ER -