Electron-only Magnetic Reconnection and Role of Reconnection in Kinetic Plasma Turbulence

Understanding the close interconnection between turbulence and reconnection has been of increasing importance to the broader heliospheric community. Turbulence is a fundamental physics process of transferring energy from large-scale motions to small kinetic scales where the turbulence energy is dissipated as plasma heat and particle energization. Magnetic reconnection is a universal physical process that converts magnetic energy to plasma kinetic and thermal energy. Both processes critically influence the dynamics and energetics of systems such as the solar corona, solar wind, and planetary magnetospheres. The goal of this project is to improve the understanding of the interconnection between reconnection and turbulence. The project will support the research of a female scientist PI, provide research opportunities to undergraduate students at Dartmouth College, and create education resources for high school students. Magnetic reconnection has been observed in turbulent environments such as the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosheath. In the magnetosheath, recent detection of electron-only reconnection has motivated increasing research in heliophysics. Electron-only and standard reconnection have been suggested to contribute to energy dissipation of the turbulence and changes in the turbulent cascade by spacecraft observations, simulations, and theory. Our knowledge on the physics underlying how reconnection influences turbulence and vice versa is at the early stages of development. The main goal of this project is to develop a new method for identifying and examining electron-only and standard reconnection using gyrokinetic simulations of plasma turbulence. This will be achieved through addressing three science objectives. The first objective is to identify electron-only reconnection in fully nonlinear kinetic turbulence. The second objective is to examine the evolution of electron-only reconnection in Alfvenic turbulence. The third objective is to assess the role of electron-only and standard reconnection in the energy dissipation of magnetized turbulence. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.