We study the time development of the population of X-type critical points in a two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic model during the early stages of freely decaying turbulence. At sufficiently high magnetic Reynolds number Rem, we find that the number of neutral points increases as , while the rates of reconnection at the most active sites decrease. The distribution of rates remains approximately exponential. We focus in particular on delicate issues of accuracy, which arise in these numerical experiments, in that the proliferation of X-points is also a feature of under-resolved simulations. The “splitting” of neutral points at high Reynolds number appears to be a fundamental feature of the cascade that has important implications for understanding the relationship between reconnection and turbulence, an issue of considerable importance for the Magnetospheric Multiscale and Solar Probe missions as well as observation of reconnection in the solar wind.
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April 2013
Research Article|
April 29 2013
Generation of X-points and secondary islands in 2D magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
Minping Wan;
Minping Wan
1Bartol Research Institute and Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Delaware
, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA
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William H. Matthaeus;
William H. Matthaeus
1Bartol Research Institute and Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Delaware
, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA
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Sergio Servidio;
Sergio Servidio
2Dipartimento di Fisica,
Universita' della Calabria
, I-87036 Cosenza, Italy
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Sean Oughton
Sean Oughton
3Department of Mathematics,
University of Waikato
, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand
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Phys. Plasmas 20, 042307 (2013)
Article history
Received:
March 18 2013
Accepted:
April 12 2013
Citation
Minping Wan, William H. Matthaeus, Sergio Servidio, Sean Oughton; Generation of X-points and secondary islands in 2D magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. Phys. Plasmas 1 April 2013; 20 (4): 042307. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4802985
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