Generation and Influence of Turbulence in Collisionless Reconnection

William Daughton
Los Alamos National Laboratory

Magnetic reconnection releases energy explosively as field lines break and reconnect in plasmas ranging from the Earth's magnetosphere, to solar eruptions and astrophysical applications. While considerable progress has been made within 2D models, very little is known regarding the influence of realistic 3D dynamics. In the past few years, the advent of petascale computing has greatly expanded the range of feasible kinetic simulations. These new results suggest that reconnection can spontaneously generate turbulence. This talk will highlight the recent progress with an emphasis on the generation mechanisms, characteristics properties and influence of the turbulence.


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