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Generation of Turbulence in Colliding Reconnection Jets

Abstract:

The collision of magnetic reconnection jets is studied by means of a three-dimensional numerical simulation at the kinetic scale, in the presence of a strong guide field. We show that turbulence develops due to the collision of jets, producing several current sheets in reconnection outflows, aligned with the guide field direction. The turbulence is mainly two-dimensional, with stronger gradients in the plane perpendicular to the guide field and low wave-like activity in the parallel direction. First, we provide a numerical method to isolate the central turbulent region. Second, we analyze the spatial second-order structure function and prove that turbulence is confined in this region. Finally, we compute local magnetic and electric frequency spectra, finding a trend in the subion range that differs from typical cases for which the Taylor hypothesis is valid, as well as wave activity in the range between ion and electron cyclotron frequencies. Our results are relevant to understand observed collisions of reconnection jets in space plasmas.