title: Inertial-Range Reconnection in Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence and in the Solar Wind.
abstract: In situ spacecraft data on the solar wind show events identified as magnetic reconnection with wide outflows and extended "X lines," 10(3)-10(4) times ion scales. To understand the role of turbulence at these scales, we make a case study of an inertial-range reconnection event in a magnetohydrodynamic simulation. We observe stochastic wandering of field lines in space, breakdown of standard magnetic flux freezing due to Richardson dispersion, and a broadened reconnection zone containing many current sheets. The coarse-grain magnetic geometry is like large-scale reconnection in the solar wind, however, with a hyperbolic flux tube or apparent X line extending over integral length scales.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
authors.forename: Cristian C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lalescu
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
authors.forename: Yi-Kang
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.|Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
authors.forename: Gregory L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Eyink
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
authors.forename: Theodore D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Drivas
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5E2, Canada.
authors.forename: Ethan T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Vishniac
authors.affiliation: Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, 475 North Charter Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lazarian