DYNAMIC ALIGNMENT AND EXACT SCALING LAWS IN MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC TURBULENCE

Journal Article · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astrophysical Journal (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/699/1/L39; COUNTRY OF INPUT: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA)· OSTI ID:21307629

Boldyrev, Stanislav ^[1]; Mason, Joanne; Cattaneo, Fausto ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin at Madison, 1150 University Ave, Madison, WI 53706 (United States)
2. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 S. Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is pervasive in astrophysical systems. Recent high-resolution numerical simulations suggest that the energy spectrum of strong incompressible MHD turbulence is E(k{sub perpendicular}) {proportional_to} k {sup -3/2}{sub perpendicular}. So far, there has been no phenomenological theory that simultaneously explains this spectrum and satisfies the exact analytic relations for MHD turbulence due to Politano and Pouquet. Indeed, the Politano-Pouquet relations are often invoked to suggest that the spectrum of MHD turbulence instead has the Kolmogorov scaling -5/3. Using geometrical arguments and numerical tests, here we analyze this seeming contradiction and demonstrate that the -3/2 scaling and the Politano-Pouquet relations are reconciled by the phenomenon of scale-dependent dynamic alignment that was recently discovered in MHD turbulence.

• OSTI ID: 21307629
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal (Online), Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal (Online) Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 699; ISSN 1538-4357
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ENERGY SPECTRA
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
SCALING LAWS
TURBULENCE