Coexistence of Plasmoid and Kelvin–Helmholtz Instabilities in Collisionless Plasma Turbulence

Abstract

Abstract The plasmoid formation in collisionless plasmas, where magnetic reconnection within turbulence may take place driven by the electron inertia, is analyzed. We find a complex situation in which, due to the presence of strong velocity shears, the typical plasmoid formation, observed to influence the energy cascade in the magnetohydrodynamic context, has to coexist with the Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability. We find that the current density layers may undergo the plasmoid or the KH instability depending on the local values of the magnetic and velocity fields. The competition among these instabilities affects not only the evolution of the current sheets, that may generate plasmoid chains or KH-driven vortices, but also the energy cascade, that is different for the magnetic and kinetic spectra.