Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection

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Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process underlying important phenomena in nature, including solar flares, magnetospheric substorms and disruptions in laboratory fusion experiments. The topological change in the magnetic field which occurs during magnetic reconnection requires the breaking of the ideal MHD frozen-in flux constraint. Classical resistivity is not adequate to explain the observed energy release times. As a consequence, collisionless processes such as electron inertia or turbulence induced dissipation must mediate reconnection. The central goal of the proposal is to understand the structure of the reconnection region near the magnetic x-line, including the development of turbulence, and to understand how it controls magnetic reconnection.