Title : Plasmoid Instability in Magnetic Reconnection and Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence Speaker Name: Yi-Min Huang Speaker Institution : Princeton University
Abstract : The ubiquitous thin current sheets in high-Lundquist-number space and astrophysical plasmas are known to be unstable to the plasmoid instability, which disrupts current sheets to form smaller structures such as flux ropes and secondary current sheets. The plasmoid instability thus plays a significant role in magnetic reconnection and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. In this talk, I will discuss the roles of the plasmoid instability in triggering the transition from slow to fast reconnection. Then I will talk about the interplay between plasmoid instability and MHD turbulence, including self-generated 3D turbulent reconnection mediated by the plasmoid instability, as well as more recent results on plasmoid-mediated energy cascade in MHD turbulence. Finally, I will also present some evidence of the plasmoid instability in solar observations.
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