| Session Details | |
| Section | ST - Solar & Terrestrial Sciences |
| Session Title | Turbulence, Reconnection, and Energetic Particles in Solar, Heliospheric Physics and Laboratory Studies: a Synergetic Approach |
| Main Convener | Dr. Bo Li (Shandong University, China) |
| Co-convener(s) | Prof. Huirong Yan (Peking University, China) Prof. Alex Lazarian (University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States) Prof. Giovanni Lapenta (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium) |
| Session Description | Turbulence, Reconnection, and Energetic Particles in Solar, Heliospheric Physics and Laboratory Studies: A synergetic approach Magnetized plasmas are frequently turbulent in both space and laboratory. In the context of solar and heliospheric physics, turbulence plays a critical role in generating the Sun’s magnetic field, heating its atmosphere to millions of Kelvin, driving the solar wind, picking up the newly ionized ions, and in interpreting the Voyager data at and beyond the edge of the Heliosphere. On a more fundamental level, turbulence changes many properties of fluids, in particular their properties for transporting energetic particles. Recent advances in understanding turbulence induce substantial changes in the understanding of cosmic ray transport parallel and perpendicular to mean magnetic field. In addition, turbulence changes the properties of magnetic reconnection and magnetic reconnection has shown the ability to accelerate energetic particles. We cordially seek for the contributions from experts of these three directions in particular: a) How turbulence changes the properties of magnetic reconnection; b) Feedback of magnetic reconnection on turbulence in magnetized plasmas; c) Particle acceleration in turbulence and reconnection. We aim at creating a forum for experts to summarize recent significant advances in the corresponding fields and to discuss new directions. There are several items that make this session both timely and important: First, while a great deal of reconnection research deals with collisionless processes, many important questions are left unanswered as to the reconnection in collision-dominated plasmas. Many believe reconnection in such a situation is slow. But is it always true? Is the Sweet-Parker reconnection stable at large Lundquist numbers? Do we expect collision-dominated gases, e.g., most of the Sun's interior, Sun's photosphere, interstellar media, to always exhibit a slow reconnection? In addition, energetic particles probe and induce feedback on both turbulence and magnetic reconnection. How efficiently are energetic particles accelerated by reconnections? Can the acceleration via reconnection account for anomalous cosmic rays? What is the backreaction of energetic particles on turbulence and reconnection? The need for laboratory plasma physicists to participate is essential. Their work has proven very helpful to bridge the gap between theory and what happens in natural settings. Experiments can model collisionality regimes ranging from moderately collisionless to quite collisional. Three dimensional data sets, with spatial resolution down below the MHD dissipation scale, can be used to evaluate reconnecting, turbulent hierarchies of scales both in space and in time. |