Detection of magnetic discontinuities in the dissipation regime of solar wind turbulence

Recent spacecraft observations of solar wind magnetic field fluctuations have shown the existence of a cascade of magnetic energy from the scale of the proton Larmor radius ρ_cp, where kinetic properties of ions invalidate fluid approximations, down to the electron Larmor radius ρ_ce, where electrons become demagnetized. This energy cascade has been conjectured to consist of highly oblique kinetic Alfvénic fluctuations (KAW) that are dissipated by proton and electron Landau damping. Analyzing the 450 vec/s resolution data from the STAFF search-coil magnetometer on Cluster, we report, for the first time, evidence for the existence in the solar wind of thin current sheets and discontinuities that exhibit spatial scales that range from the proton Larmor scale down to the electron Larmor scale. In the cases studied, the current sheets are very localized and have an extent between 20-200 km, size that is often close to both the proton Larmor radius and the proton inertial length. These isolated structures appear to be a manifestation of intermittency and may localize sites turbulent dissipation. Furthermore, we compare in-situ observations of thin current sheets and discontinuities in the solar wind at proton scales with results that come from two-dimensional Hall MHD turbulence simulations in the presence of a strong guide field. The initial condition in the simulations is a large scale flux rope structure which breaks down into smaller and smaller current sheets due to the turbulent energy transfer. The comparison shows good qualitative agreement between the properties of the structures observed in Cluster data and the properties of current sheets that arise in the simulations. Our results highlight two competing processes that contribute to the dissipation of solar wind turbulence when the plasma beta is of order unity; viz., kinetic (Landau) damping by protons and electrons and the general tendency of the cascade to form thin current sheets where reconnection and other stochastic processes can decouple the magnetic field and plasma particles. The relative importance of those two scenarios is currently under investigation.