shocks

In space plasmas, turbulence, magnetic reconnection and shock propagation are ubiquitous physical processes that have been traditionally studied using a one-fluid resistive MHD description.

Within the theoretical framework of two-fluid MHD, we retain the effects of the Hall current and electron inertia. Also, this description brings two new spatial scales into play, such as the ion and electron inertial lengths. We perform numerical simulations of the two-fluid equations and study the physical processes arising at sub-ion and even electron scales both three important phenomena in space plasmas: turbulence, magnetic reconnection and perpendicular shocks.

When a stationary turbulent regime is established, our simulations show changes in the slope of the energy power spectrum at the ion and electron inertial lengths, in agreement with the slopes obtained using dimensional analysis. Using non-dissipative two-fluid simulations, we confirm that magnetic reconnection arises only when the effects of electron inertia are retained. In a stationary regime, we obtain that the reconnection rate is proportional to the ion inertial length, as it also emerges from a scaling law derived from dimensional arguments. Finally, using 1D two-fluid simulations, we show the generation of fast-mode perpendicular shocks with a thickness of a few electron inertial lengths.