Magnetic reconnection is a process that occurs in plasma, in some cases called the fourth state of matter. Throughout quick magnetic reconnection, charged particles in a plasma– particularly ions and electrons– stop moving as a group. Pressure from the magnetic fields around the energy vacuum causes the vacuum to implode, which quickly releases enormous quantities of energy at a foreseeable rate.
The researchers have developed a theory that explains how the most explosive type of magnetic reconnection– called quick reconnection– happens and why it occurs at a consistent speed. The new theory uses a typical magnetic effect thats used in household devices, such as sensors that time automobile anti-lock braking systems and understand when a cell phone flip cover is closed.
” We finally understand what makes this kind of magnetic reconnection so quick,” said lead author on the brand-new research study Yi-Hsin Liu, a physics teacher at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and the deputy-lead of MMS theory and modeling group. “We now have a theory to discuss it completely.”
Magnetic reconnection is a process that occurs in plasma, in some cases called the 4th state of matter. Plasma types when a gas has actually been energized enough to disintegrate its atoms, leaving a motley of adversely charged electrons and positively charged ions existing side-by-side. This energetic, fluid-like material is exquisitely conscious electromagnetic fields.
From flares on the Sun, to near-Earth space, to great voids, plasmas throughout the universe go through magnetic reconnection, which quickly transforms magnetic energy into heat and velocity. While there are a number of kinds of magnetic reconnection, one especially puzzling variant is called fast reconnection, which takes place at a predictable rate.
” We have actually understood for a while that quick reconnection takes place at a specific rate that appears to be quite constant,” stated Barbara Giles, project scientist for MMS and research researcher at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “But what really drives that rate has actually been a secret, previously.”
This visualization shows the Hall effect, which takes place when the motion of the heavier ions (blue) decouple from the lighter electrons (red) as they get in the region with strong electric currents (golden region). Credit: Tom Bridgman/NASAs Scientific Visualization Studio
The brand-new research, released in a paper in Natures Communications Physics journal and moneyed in part by the National Science Foundation, discusses how quick reconnection takes place specifically in collisionless plasmas– a kind of plasma whose particles are spread out enough that the individual particles dont clash with one another. Where reconnection takes place in area, the majority of plasma remains in this collisionless state, including the plasma in solar flares and the area around Earth.
The brand-new theory reveals how and why fast reconnection is likely accelerated by the Hall impact, which describes the interaction between electric currents and magnetic fields. The Hall impact is a common magnetic phenomenon thats used in everyday innovation, like lorry wheel speed sensing units and 3D printers, where sensors measure speed, proximity, positioning, or electrical currents.
Throughout quick magnetic reconnection, charged particles in a plasma– particularly electrons and ions– stop moving as a group. As the electrons and ions begin moving individually, they offer increase to the Hall impact, creating an unstable energy vacuum where reconnection happens. Pressure from the magnetic fields around the energy vacuum triggers the vacuum to implode, which rapidly launches immense amounts of energy at a foreseeable rate.
The new theory will be evaluated in the coming years with MMS, which uses 4 spacecraft flown around Earth in a pyramid formation to study magnetic reconnection in collisionless plasmas. In this unique area laboratory, MMS can study magnetic reconnection at a greater resolution than would be possible on Earth.
” Ultimately, if we can understand how magnetic reconnection runs, then we can better predict events that can impact us at Earth, like solar flares and geomagnetic storms,” Giles said. “And if we can understand how reconnection is started, it will also help energy research study due to the fact that scientists could much better control magnetic fields in combination devices.”
For more on this research, see Rapid Magnetic Explosions in Space: Explaining Mystery Behind Fast Magnetic Reconnection.
Referral: “First-principles theory of the rate of magnetic reconnection in magnetospheric and solar plasmas” by Yi-Hsin Liu, Paul Cassak, Xiaocan Li, Michael Hesse, Shan-Chang Lin and Kevin Genestreti, 28 April 2022, Communications Physics.DOI: 10.1038/ s42005-022-00854-x.
Solar flares and coronal mass ejections on the sun are triggered by “magnetic reconnection”– when electromagnetic field lines of opposite directions merge, rejoin, and snap apart, developing explosions that launch enormous quantities of energy. Credit: NASA Conceptual Image Laboratory
In just minutes, a flare on the Sun can launch sufficient energy to power the entire world for 20,000 years. These solar flares are triggered by an explosive process referred to as magnetic reconnection, and researchers have invested the last half-century attempting to figure out how it works.
Its not merely a scientific interest either: A more complete understanding of magnetic reconnection might allow insights into nuclear combination and offer better predictions of particle storms from the Sun that can affect Earth-orbiting innovation.
Now, researchers with NASAs Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, or MMS, believe theyve figured it out. The scientists have actually developed a theory that discusses how the most explosive type of magnetic reconnection– called quickly reconnection– takes place and why it takes place at a consistent speed. The brand-new theory uses a common magnetic result thats utilized in household gadgets, such as sensing units that time lorry anti-lock braking systems and know when a cell phone flip cover is closed.