Using high-resolution Cluster satellite observations and a multi-dimensional intermittency technique, we show that the magnetic discontinuities in the turbulent solar wind are connected through the spatial scales, going from proton down to electron scales. In some circumstances, their structure resembles the Harris equilibrium profile in plasmas. Observations are consistent with a scenario where many current layers develop in turbulence and where the outflow of these reconnection events are characterized by complex sub-proton networks of secondary islands, in a self-similar way. Although in the past these pictures have been speculated to be separately ubiquitous, through theories and simulations, the present work confirms that “reconnection in turbulence” and “turbulent reconnection” coexist in space plasmas.

In this paper, we present a general scenario for nondiffusive transport and we investigate the influence of anomalous, superdiffusive transport on Fermi acceleration processes at shocks. We explain why energetic particle superdiffusion can be described within the Lévy walk framework, which is based on a power-law distribution of free path lengths and on a coupling between free path length and free path duration. A self-contained derivation of the particle mean square displacement, which grows as Δx 2 = 2D α t α with α > 1, and the particle propagator, is presented for Lévy walks, making use of a generalized version of the Montroll-Weiss equation. We also derive for the first time an explicit expression for the anomalous diffusion coefficient D α and we discuss how to obtain these quantities from energetic particle observations in space. The results are applied to the case of particle acceleration at an infinite planar shock front. Using the scaling properties of the Lévy walk propagator, the energy spectral indices are found to have values smaller than the ones predicted by the diffusive shock acceleration theory. Furthermore, when applying the results to ions with energies of a few MeV accelerated at the solar wind termination shock, the estimation of the anomalous diffusion coefficient associated with the superdiffusive motion gives acceleration times much smaller than the ones related to normal diffusion.

In situ heliospheric measurements allow us to resolve fluctuations as a function of frequency. A crucial point is to describe the power spectral density as a function of the wavenumber, in order to understand the energy cascade through the scales in terms of plasma turbulence theories. The most favorable situation occurs when the average wind speed is much higher than the phase speed of the plasma modes, equivalent to the fact that the fluctuations’ dynamical times are much longer than their typical crossing period through the spacecraft (frozen-in Taylor approximation). Using driven compressible Hall-magneothydrodynamics simulations, in which an “imaginary” spacecraft flies across a time-evolving turbulence, here we explore the limitations of the frozen-in assumption. We find that the Taylor hypothesis is robust down to sub-proton scales, especially for flows with mean velocities typical of the fast solar wind. For slow mean flows (i.e., speeds of the order of the Alfvèn speed) power spectra are subject to an amplitude shift throughout the scales. At small scales, when dispersive decorrelation mechanisms become significant, the frozen-in assumption is generally violated, in particular for k-vectors almost parallel to the average magnetic field. A discussion in terms of the spacetime autocorrelation function is proposed. These results might be relevant for the interpretation of the observations, in particular for existing and future space missions devoted to very high-resolution measurements.

The Parker Solar Probe mission has shown the ubiquitous presence of strong magnetic field deflections, namely switchbacks, during its first perihelion where it was embedded in a highly Alfvénic slow stream. Here, we study the turbulent magnetic fluctuations around ion scales in three intervals characterized by a different switchback activity, identified by the behavior of the magnetic field radial component, B _r . Quiet (B _r does not show significant fluctuations), weakly disturbed (B _r has strong fluctuations but no reversals), and highly disturbed (B _r has full reversals) periods also show different behavior for ion quantities. However, the spectral analysis shows that each stream is characterized by the typical Kolmogorov/Kraichnan power law in the inertial range, followed by a break around the characteristic ion scales. This frequency range is characterized by strong intermittent activity, with the presence of noncompressive coherent events, such as current sheets, vortex-like structures, and wave packets identified as ion cyclotron modes. Although all these events have been detected in the three periods, they have different influences in each of them. Current sheets are dominant in the highly disturbed period, wave packets are the most common in the quiet interval; while, in the weakly disturbed period, a mixture of vortices and wave packets is observed. This work provides an insight into the heating problem in collisionless plasmas, fitting in the context of the new solar missions, and, especially for Solar Orbiter, which will allow an accurate magnetic connectivity analysis to link the presence of different intermittent events to the source region.

Energetic particles represent an important component of the plasma in the heliosphere. They range from particles accelerated at impulsive events in the solar corona and at large scale structures in the interplanetary medium, to anomalous cosmic rays accelerated at the boundaries of the heliosphere. In-situ satellite observations, numerical simulations and theoretical models have advanced, often in a cooperative way, our knowledge on the acceleration processes involved. In this paper we review recent developments on particle acceleration, with major emphasis on shock acceleration, giving an overview of recent observations at interplanetary shocks and at the termination shock of the solar wind. We discuss their interpretation in terms of analytical models and numerical simulations. The influence of the particle transport properties on the acceleration mechanism will also be addressed.

Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) is an international journal which publishes papers on all aspects of astronomy and astrophysics