Several long-standing theories postulate that turbulent dissipation can heat solar wind protons in situ. Turbulent dissipation can occur via current sheets, which are small-scale structures embedded in the solar wind magnetic field. This study examines the role that switchbacks—intermediate-scale reversals in the interplanetary magnetic field—may play in heating the solar wind by generating current sheets. We explore this possible relationship by analyzing the characteristics of current sheets within and around switchback regions. Previous studies investigated current sheet properties during Parker Solar Probe's first solar encounter, analyzed current sheets using a wide range of statistics, and explored trends that switchbacks follow with radial distance from the Sun. The present study builds on these works by analyzing the distribution and maximum values of solar wind current sheets using the Partial Variance of Increments method and focusing on how these properties correlate with the presence of switchbacks to better understand how switchbacks contribute to current sheet activity. We conclude that there are no increased current sheet populations observed within and around switchbacks, with most current sheets being observed outside switchbacks. We find a consistent distribution of current sheets regardless of whether there is concurrent switchback activity. We also observe that current sheets follow a uniform occurrence rate with increased distance from the Sun, while switchback regions significantly evolve with larger radial distances. Our findings suggest that local turbulence may be responsible for generating solar wind current sheets and does so with the same efficiency inside and outside of switchback regions.

中文翻译：

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内日球层的小尺度洋流带和相关的折返活动


几个长期存在的理论假设湍流耗散可以在原位加热太阳风质子。湍流耗散可以通过电流片发生，电流片是嵌入太阳风磁场中的小尺度结构。这项研究考察了之字形（行星际磁场中的中等尺度反转）通过产生电流片在加热太阳风中可能发挥的作用。我们通过分析折返区域内和周围的当前图纸的特征来探索这种可能的关系。以前的研究调查了帕克太阳探测器第一次与太阳相遇期间的洋流片特性，使用广泛的统计数据分析了洋流片，并探索了与太阳径向距离的折返趋势。本研究以这些工作为基础，使用增量部分方差方法分析太阳风洋流片的分布和最大值，并关注这些属性如何与之字形的存在相关联，以更好地了解之字形如何对海流片活动做出贡献。我们得出的结论是，在之字形内部和周围没有观察到水流片状种群增加，大多数当前片状物是在之字形形之外观察到的。我们发现，无论是否存在并发切回活动，当前工作表的分布都是一致的。我们还观察到，随着与太阳距离的增加，当前片的出现率呈均匀，而之字形区域则随着径向距离的增加而显著演变。我们的研究结果表明，局部湍流可能是产生太阳风电流片的原因，并且在之字形区域内外以相同的效率产生。