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VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
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SUMMARY:"Magnetic reconnection via stochastic plasmoid chains"
DTSTART:20140618T103000
DTEND:20140618T113000
DTSTAMP:20260925T112225Z
UID:a1f2d0a03dfe69c3c1f5e54bc65d9a9a8eb5506801b1fd82d3e78587
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Nuno Loureiro\nInstituto Superior Técnico Lisbon\, Portug
 al\nMagnetic reconnection is the topological reconfiguration of the magnet
 ic field in a plasma\, accompanied by the violent release of energy and pa
 rticle acceleration. Reconnection is as ubiquitous as plasmas themselves\,
  with solar flares perhaps the most popular example. Other fascinating pro
 cesses where reconnection plays a key role include the magnetic dynamo\, g
 eomagnetic storms and the sawtooth crash in tokamaks.\nOver the last few y
 ears\, the theoretical understanding of magnetic reconnection in large-sca
 le fluid systems has undergone a major paradigm shift. The steady-state mo
 del of reconnection described by the famous Sweet-Parker (SP) theory\, whi
 ch dominated the field for 50 years\, has been replaced with an essentiall
 y time-dependent\, bursty picture of the reconnection layer\, dominated by
  the continuous formation and ejection of multiple plasmoids. Whereas in t
 he SP model reconnection was predicted to be slow\, a major implication of
  this new paradigm is that reconnection in fluid systems is fast (i.e.\, i
 ndependent of the Lundquist number)\, provided that the system is large en
 ough.\nIn this talk\, I will review the recent developments in reconnectio
 n that led to this essentially new framework\, and briefly discuss some of
  the challenges that remain at the frontier of this subject.
LOCATION:PPB 019
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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