Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection

磁重联是自然界重要现象的基础过程，包括太阳耀斑、磁层亚暴和实验室聚变实验中的破坏。 磁场重联过程中发生的磁场拓扑变化要求打破理想的MHD冻结磁通约束。经典电阻率不足以解释所观察到的能量释放时间。因此，无碰撞过程，如电子惯性或湍流引起的耗散必须调解重联。该提案的中心目标是了解磁x线附近重联区域的结构，包括湍流的发展，并了解它如何控制磁重联。

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.