The intermittent solar wind: current sheets and their role in energetic
particle transport

In past years, measurements of the solar wind plasma have advanced our understanding of MHD turbulence tremendously. At small scales, the solar wind is believed to be very multifractal with nonlinear interactions causing an intermittent energy dissipation, leading to possible current-sheet structures. In this talk, I describe a novel data analysis procedure which allows us to both examine the existence and identify the location of current sheets in the solar wind. The presence of these structures introduces a new source of solar wind
turbulence intermittency and can affect the transport of energetic particles.

Previous studies of energetic-particle transport in the solar wind often assume a uniform large-scale background magnetic field, with a turbulent field superposed. With the existence of current sheets in
the solar wind, this picture needs to be changed. By constructing a model turbulence of the solar wind that includes explicitly flux-tube-like structures, we show that large scale perpendicular diffusion can come out without introducing a 2D geometry for the underlying MHD turbulence. The implications of this finding is
discussed.

Gang "Larry" Li

UAHuntsville