Speaker: Vadim Roytershteyn, Space Science Institute
Abstract: Plasma turbulence is one of the most ubiquitous processes in laboratory, space, and astrophysical plasmas. Dissipation of turbulent energy is thought to play an important role in the energy balance of many systems, including the solar corona and the solar wind. In contrast to the relatively simple physics of dissipation in fluids and collisional plasmas, numerous microscopic processes can produce effective dissipation in weakly collisional plasmas. The problem of identifying and quantifying these processes has attracted considerable attention in the last decade partially because of its significance for understanding energy partition in the corona and solar wind. In this talk, we will describe some of the recent advances enabled by applications of kinetic particle computer simulations to this problem. Specifically, we will focus on generation of coherent structures by turbulence and on the contribution of magnetic reconnection to the energy dissipation.