Tearing instability in Alfv\'en and kinetic-Alfv\'en turbulence

TL;DR

This paper discusses recent advances in understanding how tearing instability influences Alfvén and kinetic-Alfvén turbulence, highlighting its significance in space physics and astrophysics without heavy analytical details.

Contribution

It provides a qualitative overview of tearing-mediated magnetic turbulence, focusing on Alfvén and kinetic-Alfvén turbulence, and emphasizes its relevance to space and astrophysical phenomena.

Findings

Tearing instability plays a crucial role in magnetic turbulence.

Reconnection modifies turbulence at specific scales.

The study offers accessible insights into complex turbulence phenomena.

Abstract

Recently, it has been realized that magnetic plasma turbulence and magnetic field reconnection are inherently related phenomena. Turbulent fluctuations generate regions of a sheared magnetic field that become unstable to the tearing instability and reconnection, thus modifying turbulence at the corresponding scales. In this contribution, we give a brief discussion of some recent results on tearing-mediated magnetic turbulence. We illustrate the main ideas of this rapidly developing field of study by concentrating on two important examples -- magnetohydrodynamic Alfv\'en turbulence and small-scale kinetic-Alfv\'en turbulence. Due to various potential applications of these phenomena in space physics and astrophysics, we specifically try not to overload the text by heavy analytical derivations, but rather present a qualitative discussion accessible to a non-expert in the theories of turbulence and reconnection.