Statistical Properties of Turbulent Fluctuations Associated with Electron-only Magnetic Reconnection

TL;DR

This study uses hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell simulations to analyze the statistical properties of turbulence associated with electron-only magnetic reconnection, finding no significant differences from standard reconnection in turbulence characteristics.

Contribution

It demonstrates that electron-only reconnection does not alter the statistical properties of plasma turbulence compared to ion-coupled reconnection.

Findings

Turbulence statistics are similar for electron-only and ion-coupled reconnection.

The turbulent energy cascade appears independent of the reconnection mechanism.

Electrons primarily contribute to magnetic energy dissipation at sub-ion scales.

Abstract

Context: Recent satellite measurements in the turbulent magnetosheath of Earth have given evidence of an unusual reconnection mechanism that is driven exclusively by electrons. This newly observed process was called electron-only reconnection, and its inter-play with plasma turbulence is a matter of great debate. Aims: By using 2D-3V hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell simulations of freely decaying plasma turbulence, we study the role of electron-only reconnection in the development of plasma turbulence. In particular, we search for possible differences with respect to the turbulence associated with standard ion-coupled reconnection. Methods: We analyzed the structure functions of the turbulent magnetic field and ion fluid velocity fluctuations to characterize the structure and the intermittency properties of the turbulent energy cascade. Results: We find that the statistical properties of turbulent fluctuations associated with electron-only reconnection are consistent with those of turbulent fluctuations associated with standard ion-coupled reconnection, and no peculiar signature related to electron-only reconnection is found in the turbulence statistics. This result suggests that the turbulent energy cascade in a collisionless magnetized plasma does not depend on the specific mechanism associated with magnetic reconnection. The properties of the dissipation range are discussed as well, and we claim that only electrons contribute to the dissipation of magnetic field energy at sub-ion scales.