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Research

Plasma turbulence

Plasma turbulence shows many features of hydrodynamic turbulence, like an energy cascade. However, plasma turbulence has the additional complications due to the electromagnetic as well as particulate nature of plasmas. This leads to many new and interesting features. For ex. numerical simulations of plasma turbulence show the formation of very thin current sheets, as shown in the video below. We found that the thickness of these current sheets is of the order of kinetic scales, which is also observed in solar wind observations.

Magnetic reconnection

Magnetic reconnection is a phenomena where magnetic field lines are broken and reconnected. This is accompanied by conversion of magnetic energy into plasma energy. Magnetic reconnection is behind several phenomena, like for ex. solar flares. Magnetic island merging also proceeds via reconnection. Our simulations like below show that reconnection rate is determined by both small-scale kinetic physics and also large-scale MHD physics. The magnetic island merging simulation is shown below

Group Members

1. Johan Sharma (Ph.D. student, 2021--)
2. Sruti Satyasmita (Junior Research Fellow, 2022--)
3. Snehanshu Maiti (Ph.D. student, DESY Zeuthen, 2019-2021)

Publications in last 5 years

1. Cosmic-ray Transport in Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence Snehanshu Maiti, Kirit Makwana, Heshou Zhang, & Huirong Yan, Astrophys. J. 926(1), 94 (2022).
2. Role of Parallel Solenoidal Electric Field on Energy Conversion in 2.5D Decaying Turbulence with a Guide Magnetic Field Peera Pongkitiwanichakul, David Ruffolo, Fan Guo, Senbei Du, Piyawat Suetrong, Chutima Yannawa, Kirit Makwana, Kittipat Malakit, Astrophys. J. 923(2), 182 (2021).
3. Properties of magnetohydrodynamic modes in compressively driven plasma turbulence K. D. Makwana, and Huirong Yan, Physical Review X 10, Vol. 3, 031021 (2020).
4. Identification of plasma modes in galactic turbulence with synchrotron polarization Heshou Zhang, Alexey Chepurnov, Huirong Yan, Kirit Makwana, Reinaldo Santos-Lima, and Sarah Appleby, Nature Astronomy (2020), doi: 10.1038/s41550-020-1093-4.
5. Ideal MHD instabilities for coronal mass ejections: interacting current channels and particle ac- celeration Rony Keppens, Yang Guo, K. D. Makwana, Zhixing Mei, Bart Ripperda, Chun Xia, and Xiaozhou Zhao, Rev. Mod. Plasma Phys. 3:14 (2019).
6. Study of magnetic reconnection in large-scale magnetic island coalescence via spatially coupled MHD and PIC simulations (selected as Editor’s Pick) K. D. Makwana, R. Keppens, and G. Lapenta, Phys. Plasmas 25, 082904 (2018).
7. Two way coupled MHD-PIC simulations of magnetic reconnection in magnetic island coalescence∗ K. D. Makwana, R. Keppens, and G. Lapenta, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser 1031, 012019 (2018).
8. Driving reconnection in sheared magnetic configurations with forced fluctuations Peera Pongkitiwanichakul, Kirit D. Makwana, and David Ruffolo, Phys. Plasmas 25, 022114 (2018).