Intermittency, coherent structures and dissipation in plasma turbulence

Wan, M.1; Matthaeus, W. H.2,3; Roytershteyn, V.4; Parashar, T. N.2,3; Wu, P.2,3; Karimabadi, H.5

2016-04

10.1063/1.4945631

PHYSICS OF PLASMAS   影响因子和分区

1070-664X

1089-7674

Collisionless dissipation in turbulent plasmas such as the solar wind and the solar corona has been an intensively studied subject recently, with new insights often emerging from numerical simulation. Here we report results from high resolution, fully kinetic simulations of plasma turbulence in both two (2D) and three (3D) dimensions, studying the relationship between intermittency and dissipation. The simulations show development of turbulent coherent structures, characterized by sheet-like current density structures spanning a range of scales. An approximate dissipation measure is employed, based on work done by the electromagnetic field in the local electron fluid frame. This surrogate dissipation measure is highly concentrated in small subvolumes in both 2D and 3D simulations. Fully kinetic simulations are also compared with magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations in terms of coherent structures and dissipation. The interesting result emerges that the conditional averages of dissipation measure scale very similarly with normalized current density J in 2D and 3D particle-in-cell and in MHD. To the extent that the surrogate dissipation measure is accurate, this result implies that on average dissipation scales as similar to J(2) in turbulent kinetic plasma. wMultifractal intermittency is seen in the inertial range in both 2D and 3D, but at scales similar to ion inertial length, the scaling is closer to monofractal. (c) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.

SCI ; EI

英语

第一 ; 通讯

Magnetosphere Multiscale Mission[NNX14AC39G]

Physics

Physics, Fluids & Plasmas

WOS:000375855500023

AMER INST PHYSICS

20162002391188

Collisionless plasmas ; Electromagnetic fields ; Kinetics ; Magnetohydrodynamics ; Magnetoplasma ; Plasma simulation

Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) Power Generation:615.3 ; Electricity and Magnetism:701 ; Classical Physics; Quantum Theory; Relativity:931 ; Plasma Physics:932.3

PHYSICS

Web of Science

1.South Univ Sci & Technol China, Dept Mech & Aerosp Engn, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, Peoples R China
2.Univ Delaware, Bartol Res Inst, Newark, DE 19716 USA
3.Univ Delaware, Dept Phys & Astron, Newark, DE 19716 USA
4.Space Sci Inst, Boulder, CO 80301 USA
5.12837 Caminito Canto, Del Mar, CA 92014 USA

Wan, M.,Matthaeus, W. H.,Roytershteyn, V.,et al. Intermittency, coherent structures and dissipation in plasma turbulence[J]. PHYSICS OF PLASMAS,2016,23(4).

Wan, M.,Matthaeus, W. H.,Roytershteyn, V.,Parashar, T. N.,Wu, P.,&Karimabadi, H..(2016).Intermittency, coherent structures and dissipation in plasma turbulence.PHYSICS OF PLASMAS,23(4).

Wan, M.,et al."Intermittency, coherent structures and dissipation in plasma turbulence".PHYSICS OF PLASMAS 23.4(2016).