Role of the Plasmoid Instability in Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence

Chuanfei Dong, Liang Wang, Yi-Min Huang, Luca Comisso, and Amitava Bhattacharjee
Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 165101 – Published 17 October 2018
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Abstract

The plasmoid instability in evolving current sheets has been widely studied due to its effects on the disruption of current sheets, the formation of plasmoids, and the resultant fast magnetic reconnection. In this Letter, we study the role of the plasmoid instability in two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence by means of high-resolution direct numerical simulations. At a sufficiently large magnetic Reynolds number (Rm=106), the combined effects of dynamic alignment and turbulent intermittency lead to a copious formation of plasmoids in a multitude of intense current sheets. The disruption of current sheet structures facilitates the energy cascade towards small scales, leading to the breaking and steepening of the energy spectrum. In the plasmoid-mediated regime, the energy spectrum displays a scaling that is close to the spectral index 2.2 as proposed by recent analytic theories. We also demonstrate that the scale-dependent dynamic alignment exists in 2D MHD turbulence and the corresponding slope of the alignment angle is close to 0.25.

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  • Received 20 April 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.165101

© 2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Plasma Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Chuanfei Dong1,2,*, Liang Wang1,2, Yi-Min Huang1,2, Luca Comisso1,2,3,4, and Amitava Bhattacharjee1,2

  • 1Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
  • 2Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA
  • 3Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
  • 4Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA

  • *dcfy@princeton.edu

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Issue

Vol. 121, Iss. 16 — 19 October 2018

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