Nonlinear Phase Mixing and Phase-Space Cascade of Entropy in Gyrokinetic Plasma Turbulence

T Tatsuno; W Dorland; G. G Plunk; A. A Schekochihin; M Barnes; S. C Cowley; G. G Howes

doi:10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.103.015003

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Nonlinear Phase Mixing and Phase-Space Cascade of Entropy in Gyrokinetic Plasma Turbulence

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Nonlinear Phase Mixing and Phase-Space Cascade of Entropy in Gyrokinetic Plasma Turbulence

T Tatsuno, W Dorland, G. G Plunk, A. A Schekochihin, M Barnes, S. C Cowley and G. G Howes

Physical review letters, Vol.103(1), pp.015003-015003

07/03/2009

DOI: 10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.103.015003

PMID: 19659155

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https://arxiv.org/pdf/0811.2538View

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Abstract

Electrostatic turbulence in weakly collisional, magnetized plasma can be interpreted as a cascade of entropy in phase space, which is proposed as a universal mechanism for dissipation of energy in magnetized plasma turbulence. When the nonlinear decorrelation time at the scale of the thermal Larmor radius is shorter than the collision time, a broad spectrum of fluctuations at sub-Larmor scales is numerically found in velocity and position space, with theoretically predicted scalings. The results are important because they identify what is probably a universal Kolmogorov-like regime for kinetic turbulence; and because any physical process that produces fluctuations of the gyrophase-independent part of the distribution function may, via the entropy cascade, result in turbulent heating at a rate that increases with the fluctuation amplitude, but is independent of the collision frequency.

Physical Properties

Turbulence

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY

CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS

DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS

ENTROPY

FLUCTUATIONS

FUNCTIONS

HEATING

LARMOR RADIUS

MATHEMATICAL SPACE

NONLINEAR PROBLEMS

PHASE SPACE

PLASMA

PLASMA HEATING

SPACE

THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES

TURBULENT HEATING

VARIATIONS

Details

Title: Subtitle: Nonlinear Phase Mixing and Phase-Space Cascade of Entropy in Gyrokinetic Plasma Turbulence
Creators: T Tatsuno - University of Maryland, College Park
W Dorland - University of Maryland, College Park
G. G Plunk - University of Maryland, College Park
A. A Schekochihin - University of Oxford
M Barnes - University of Oxford
S. C Cowley - Atomic Energy (Canada)
G. G Howes - University of Iowa
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Physical review letters, Vol.103(1), pp.015003-015003
DOI: 10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.103.015003
PMID: 19659155
NLM abbreviation: Phys Rev Lett
ISSN: 0031-9007
eISSN: 1079-7114
Language: English
Date published: 07/03/2009
Academic Unit: Physics and Astronomy
Record Identifier: 9984199948202771

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