Alfvén wave collisions, the fundamental building block of plasma turbulence. II. Numerical solution

Nielson, K. D.; Howes, G. G.; Dorland, W.

doi:10.1063/1.4812807

Title: Alfvén wave collisions, the fundamental building block of plasma turbulence. II. Numerical solution

Journal Article · Mon Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4812807· OSTI ID:1565008

Nielson, K. D. ^[1]; Howes, G. G. ^[1]; Dorland, W. ^[2]

Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (United States)
Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)

Here, this paper presents the numerical verification of an asymptotic analytical solution for the nonlinear interaction between counterpropagating Alfvén waves, the fundamental building block of astrophysical plasma turbulence. The analytical solution, derived in the weak turbulence limit using the equations of incompressible MHD, is compared to a nonlinear gyrokinetic simulation of an Alfvén wave collision. Finally, the agreement between these methods signifies that the incompressible solution satisfactorily describes the essential dynamics of the nonlinear energy transfer, even under the weakly collisional plasma conditions relevant to many astrophysical environments.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

OSTI ID:: 1565008

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 20, Issue 7; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 31 works

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Laboratory space physics: Investigating the physics of space plasmas in the laboratory Howes, Gregory G. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5025421	journal	May 2018
On the ion-inertial-range density-power spectra in solar wind turbulence Treumann, Rudolf A.; Baumjohann, Wolfgang; Narita, Yasuhito Annales Geophysicae, Vol. 37, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-37-183-2019	journal	January 2019
Nonlinear energy transfer and current sheet development in localized Alfven wavepacket collisions in the strong turbulence limit Verniero, J. L.; Howes, G. G.; Klein, K. G. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1705.07046	text	January 2017
Spatially Localized Particle Energization by Landau Damping in Current Sheets Produced by Strong Alfven Wave Collisions Howes, Gregory G.; McCubbin, Andrew J.; Klein, Kristopher G. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1708.00757	text	January 2017
The Alfvenic nature of energy transfer mediation in localized, strongly nonlinear Alfven wavepacket collisions Verniero, J. L.; Howes, G. G. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1712.08751	text	January 2017
Laboratory Space Physics: Investigating the Physics of Space Plasmas in the Laboratory Howes, Gregory G. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1802.04154	text	January 2018
Collisionless energy transfer in kinetic turbulence: field-particle correlations in Fourier space Li, Tak Chu; Howes, Gregory G.; Klein, Kristopher G. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1904.09334	text	January 2019
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