Search for: All records

Abstract We report observations of multiple subscale reconnecting current sheets embedded inside a large-scale heliospheric current sheet (HCS) reconnection exhaust. The discovery was made possible by the unusual skimming trajectory of Parker Solar Probe through a sunward-directed HCS exhaust, sampling structures convecting with the exhaust outflows for more than 3 hr during Encounter 14, at a radial distance of ∼17 solar radii. A large number of subscale current sheets (SCSs) were detected inside the HCS exhaust. Remarkably, five SCSs showed direct evidence for reconnection, displaying near-Alfvénic outflow jets and bifurcated current sheets. The reconnecting SCSs all had small magnetic shears (27°–81°), i.e., strong guide fields. The thickness of the subscale reconnecting current sheets ranged from ∼60 km to ∼5000 km (∼20–2000 ion inertial lengths). The SCS exhausts were directed predominantly in the normal or out-of-plane direction of the HCS, i.e., nearly orthogonal to the HCS exhaust direction. The presence of multiple low-magnetic-shear reconnecting current sheets inside a large-scale exhaust could be associated with coalescence of multiple large flux ropes inside the HCS exhaust. The orientation of some SCS exhausts was partly in the ecliptic plane of the HCS, which may indicate that the coalescence process is highly three-dimensional. Since the coalescence process is likely short-lived, the detection of five such events inside a single HCS crossing could imply the common occurrence of flux rope coalescence in large-scale HCS reconnection exhausts. 

During three of its first five orbits around the Sun, Parker Solar Probe (PSP) crossed the large-scale heliospheric current sheet (HCS) multiple times and provided unprecedented detailed plasma and field observations of the near-Sun HCS. We report the common detections by PSP of reconnection exhaust signatures in the HCS at heliocentric distances of 29.5–107 solar radii during encounters 1, 4, and 5. Both sunward and antisunward-directed reconnection exhausts were observed. In the sunward reconnection exhausts, PSP detected counterstreaming strahl electrons, indicating that HCS reconnection resulted in the formation of closed magnetic field lines with both ends connected to the Sun. In the antisunward exhausts, PSP observed dropouts of strahl electrons, consistent with the reconnected HCS field lines being disconnected from the Sun. The common detection of reconnection in the HCS suggests that reconnection is almost always active in the HCS near the Sun. Furthermore, the occurrence of multiple long-duration partial crossings of the HCS suggests that HCS reconnection could produce chains of large bulges with spatial dimensions of up to several solar radii. The finding of the prevalence of reconnection in the HCS is somewhat surprising since PSP has revealed that the HCS is much thicker than the kinetic scales required for reconnection onset. The observations are also in stark contrast with the apparent absence of reconnection in most of the small-scale and much more intense current sheets encountered near perihelia, many of which are associated with “switchbacks”. Thus, the PSP findings suggest that large-scale dynamics, either locally in the solar wind or within the coronal source of the HCS (at the tip of helmet streamers), plays a critical role in triggering reconnection onset. 

New results are presented on a high-statistics measurement of Collins and Sivers asymmetries of charged hadrons produced in deep inelastic scattering of muons on a transversely polarized ${}^6\mathrm{LiD}$target. The data were taken in 2022 with the COMPASS spectrometer using the 160 GeV muon beam at CERN, statistically balancing the existing data on transversely polarized proton targets. The first results from about two-thirds of the new data have total uncertainties smaller by up to a factor of three compared to the previous deuteron measurements. Using all the COMPASS proton and deuteron results, both the transversity and the Sivers distribution functions of the $u$and $d$quark, as well as the tensor charge in the measured $x$range are extracted. In particular, the accuracy of the $d$quark results is significantly improved. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

The COMPASS Collaboration performed measurements of the Drell-Yan process in 2015 and 2018 using a $190\mathrm{GeV}/c$ ${\pi }^{-}$beam impinging on a transversely polarized ammonia target. Combining the data of both years, we present final results on the amplitudes of five azimuthal modulations, which correspond to transverse-spin-dependent azimuthal asymmetries (TSAs) in the dimuon production cross section. Three of them probe the nucleon leading-twist Sivers, transversity, and pretzelosity transverse-momentum dependent (TMD) parton distribution functions (PDFs). The other two are induced by subleading effects. These TSAs provide unique new inputs for the study of the nucleon TMD PDFs and their universality properties. In particular, the Sivers TSA observed in this measurement is consistent with the fundamental QCD prediction of a sign change of naive time-reversal-odd TMD PDFs when comparing the Drell-Yan process with deep inelastic scattering. Also, within the context of model predictions, the observed transversity TSA is consistent with the expectation of a sign change for the Boer-Mulders function. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

Abstract We report on a measurement of Spin Density Matrix Elements (SDMEs) in hard exclusive$$\rho ^0$$ ${\rho }^0$meson muoproduction at COMPASS using 160 GeV/cpolarised$$ \mu ^{+}$$ ${\mu }^{+}$and$$ \mu ^{-}$$ ${\mu }^{-}$beams impinging on a liquid hydrogen target. The measurement covers the kinematic range 5.0 GeV/$$c^2$$ $c^2$$$< W<$$ $<W<$17.0 GeV/$$c^2$$ $c^2$, 1.0 (GeV/c)$$^2$$ ${}^2$$$< Q^2<$$ $<Q^2<$10.0 (GeV/c)$$^2$$ ${}^2$and 0.01 (GeV/c)$$^2$$ ${}^2$$$< p_{\textrm{T}}^2<$$ $<p_{\text{T}}^2<$0.5 (GeV/c)$$^2$$ ${}^2$. Here,Wdenotes the mass of the final hadronic system,$$Q^2$$ $Q^2$the virtuality of the exchanged photon, and$$p_{\textrm{T}}$$ $p_{\text{T}}$the transverse momentum of the$$\rho ^0$$ ${\rho }^0$meson with respect to the virtual-photon direction. The measured non-zero SDMEs for the transitions of transversely polarised virtual photons to longitudinally polarised vector mesons ($$\gamma ^*_T \rightarrow V^{ }_L$$ ${\gamma }_T^{\ast }\to V_L^{}$) indicate a violation ofs-channel helicity conservation. Additionally, we observe a dominant contribution of natural-parity-exchange transitions and a very small contribution of unnatural-parity-exchange transitions, which is compatible with zero within experimental uncertainties. The results provide important input for modelling Generalised Parton Distributions (GPDs). In particular, they may allow one to evaluate in a model-dependent way the role of parton helicity-flip GPDs in exclusive$$\rho ^0$$ ${\rho }^0$production.