Flux-rope-mediated Turbulent Magnetic Reconnection

Abstract We present a new model of magnetic reconnection in the presence of turbulence. The new model differs from the Lazarian–Vishniac turbulent reconnection theory by emphasizing the role of locally coherent magnetic structures, whose existence is shown to be permitted by the properties of magnetic field line separation in turbulent plasma. Local coherence allows storage of magnetic helicity inside the reconnection layer in the form of locally coherent twisted flux ropes. We then introduce the “Alfvén horizon” to explain why the global reconnection rate can be governed by locally coherent magnetic field structure instead of by field line wandering, formally extending to 3D the principle that reconnection can be made fast by fragmentation of the global current layer. Coherence is shown to dominate over field line dispersion if the anisotropy of the turbulence at the perpendicular scale matching the thickness of a marginally stable current layer exceeds the aspect ratio of the current layer. Finally, we conjecture that turbulence generated within the reconnection layer may produce a critically balanced state that maintains the system in the flux-rope-mediated regime. The new model successfully accounts for the major features of 3D numerical simulations of self-generated turbulent reconnection, including reconnection rates of 0.01 in resistive MHD and 0.1 with collisionless physics.