Towards a self-consistent theory of turbulent reconnection

Fast reconnection due to turbulent dissipation has long been hypothesized. This classic idea is critically examined in 3D reduced magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, by taking into account the backreaction of small-scale magnetic fields. We find that the backreaction leads to such a dramatic reduction in a global reconnection rate as to recover the original Sweet-Parker scaling. In 2D limit, the global reconnection rate is shown to be enhanced over the Sweet-Parker result by a factor of magnetic Mach number. These results are consequences of mean square magnetic potential balance. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.