Journal article
Nonlinear energy transfer and current sheet development in localized Alfven wavepacket collisions in the strong turbulence limit
Journal of plasma physics, Vol.84(1), 905840103
02/01/2018
DOI: 10.1017/S0022377817001003
Abstract
In space and astrophysical plasmas, turbulence is responsible for transferring energy from large scales driven by violent events or instabilities, to smaller scales where turbulent energy is ultimately converted into plasma heat by dissipative mechanisms. The nonlinear interaction between counterpropagating Alfven waves, denoted Alfven wave collisions, drives this turbulent energy cascade, as recognized by early work with incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations. Recent work employing analytical calculations and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of Alfven wave collisions in an idealized periodic initial state have demonstrated the key properties that strong Alfven wave collisions mediate effectively the transfer of energy to smaller perpendicular scales and self-consistently generate current sheets. For the more realistic case of the collision between two initially separated Alfven wavepackets, we use a nonlinear gyrokinetic simulation to show here that these key properties persist: strong Alfven wavepacket collisions indeed facilitate the perpendicular cascade of energy and give rise to current sheets. Furthermore, the evolution shows that nonlinear interactions occur only while the wavepackets overlap, followed by a clean separation of the wavepackets with straight uniform magnetic fields and the cessation of nonlinear evolution in between collisions, even in the gyrokinetic simulation presented here which resolves dispersive and kinetic effects beyond the reach of the MHD theory.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Nonlinear energy transfer and current sheet development in localized Alfven wavepacket collisions in the strong turbulence limit
- Creators
- J. L. Verniero - University of IowaG. G. Howes - University of IowaK. G. Klein - University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of plasma physics, Vol.84(1), 905840103
- Publisher
- Cambridge Univ Press
- DOI
- 10.1017/S0022377817001003
- ISSN
- 0022-3778
- eISSN
- 1469-7807
- Number of pages
- 19
- Grant note
- 1048957 / National Science Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF) DE-AC05-00OR22725 / DOE Office of Science User Facility; United States Department of Energy (DOE) PHY-10033446; AGS-1054061 / NSF; National Science Foundation (NSF) DE-SC0014599 / DOE; United States Department of Energy (DOE) ACI-1053575 / National Science Foundation through NSF XSEDE Award
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 02/01/2018
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984428808402771
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