Wednesday, April 27, 2016

April 29, 2016 3:30PM BPB-217. Alexandre Lazarian. Turbulent reconnection and particle acceleration.

I shall explain how turbulence makes magnetic reconnection fast and will compare this approach with other ideas in the field, e.g. related to tearing instability. I shall discuss both non-relativistic and relativistic reconnection. I shall demonstrate that turbulent reconnection inevitably leads to the particle acceleration. Finally, I shall discuss the implications of the process for the famous ICMART model by Zhang & Yan.