Kinetic Simulation of Energy Cascade Associated with Filamentary Currents in Solar Wind Turbulence

Abstract The role of magnetic reconnection in energy cascade within solar wind turbulence remains a fundamental unsolved problem in astrophysics. We employ a coarse-grained technique to investigate energy cascades at sub-ion scale within filamentary currents (FCs) in a decaying turbulence using particle-in-cell simulations. We compare the energy cascades at sub-ion scale in standard reconnection, electron-only reconnection, and nonreconnection FCs. Our results demonstrate that the flow energy cascade dominates over electromagnetic energy cascade at sub-ion scale, with electrons carrying more energy than ions. Furthermore, energy cascade associated with standard reconnection is more intense than that associated with electron-only reconnection. We also identify a significant contribution to the energy cascade from nonreconnection FCs, suggesting that these structures actively participate in energy transfer in plasma turbulence. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the turbulent energy cascade mediated by magnetic reconnection in solar wind turbulence.