期刊
NATURE
卷 497, 期 7450, 页码 466-469出版社
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/nature12128
关键词
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资金
- US NSF [CDI-II: CMMI0941530, OCI-108849]
- JHU's Institute for Data Intensive Engineering Science
- National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Direct For Computer & Info Scie & Enginr
- Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) [1040114, 1137045] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Div Of Civil, Mechanical, & Manufact Inn
- Directorate For Engineering [0941530] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC)
- Direct For Computer & Info Scie & Enginr [0963185, 1136941] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
The idea of 'frozen-in' magnetic field lines for ideal plasmas(1) is useful to explain diverse astrophysical phenomena(2), for example the shedding of excess angular momentum from protostars by twisting of field lines frozen into the interstellar medium. Frozen-in field lines, however, preclude the rapid changes in magnetic topology observed at high conductivities, as in solar flares(2,3). Microphysical plasma processes are a proposed explanation of the observed high rates(4-6), but it is an open question whether such processes can rapidly reconnect astrophysical flux structures much greater in extent than several thousand ion gyroradii. An alternative explanation(7,8) is that turbulent Richardson advection(9) brings field lines implosively together from distances far apart to separations of the order of gyroradii. Here we report an analysis of a simulation of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence at high conductivity that exhibits Richardson dispersion. This effect of advection in rough velocity fields, which appear non-differentiable in space, leads to line motions that are completely indeterministic or 'spontaneously stochastic', as predicted in analytical studies(10-13). The turbulent breakdown of standard flux freezing at scales greater than the ion gyroradius can explain fast reconnection of very large-scale flux structures, both observed (solar flares and coronal mass ejections) and predicted (the inner heliosheath, accretion disks, gamma-ray bursts and so on). For laminar plasma flows with smooth velocity fields or for low turbulence intensity, stochastic flux freezing reduces to the usual frozen-in condition. [GRAPHICS] .
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