Seminar’s Schedule:
14:00 – 14:15 : Welcome and set up
14:15 – 15:00 : Seminar + Q&A
15:00 – 15:30 : Tea, coffee, and discussions

Seminar’s Title:
Exploring the effect of turbulent fluctuations on the onset of reconnection

Seminar’s Abstract:
In space plasmas, explosive and energetic events are routinely observed. Many of these events are associated with magnetic reconnection. Moreover, turbulence is undeniably present in a wide range of plasmas, e.g., solar wind, solar corona, accretion disks, etc. Magnetic reconnection and turbulence are important energy-transport and energy-transfer processes which not only transport energy across a broad range of scales but also facilitate the energy transfer between fields and particles. From in-situ observations in the Earth’s magnetosheath and numerical simulations, it is well known that turbulence can lead to reconnection events. Likewise, from observations in the Earth’s magnetotail, as well as simulations, turbulence might be present in almost any region of a reconnection event. Despite decades of research, there are still many open questions about turbulence and reconnection. By means of 2D PIC simulations, we explore the effect of driving turbulent fluctuations on a current sheet and study how these fluctuations can modify the onset of reconnection and its dynamics. Our results cast some doubt on the role of turbulent fluctuations as triggers of reconnection events in current sheets.

Speaker’s short bio:
Originally from Colombia, Jeffersson Agudelo Rueda did his undergrad at the National University of Colombia and his master’s degree at Los Andes University, also in Colombia. In his master he worked with the MHD code MagIC exploring the effect of the induced currents on the Europa’s induced magnetic field. He pursued his PhD at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), at University College London. During this time he studied the links between turbulence and magnetic reconnection using 3D Particle in Cell simulations. Jeffersson is currently a postdoc researcher in the department of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College working on PIC simulations of reconnection and turbulence.