Study of localized structures of kinetic Alfvén wave and generation of turbulence

Journal Article · Mon Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4922678· OSTI ID:22490929

Kumari, Anju; Yadav, Nitin ^[1]

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1. Centre for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Delhi-110016 (India)

Localization of kinetic Alfvén waves (KAW) due to ponderomotive nonlinearity can be regarded as an important mechanism for heating the space plasmas. The present paper investigates the effect of background density fluctuations on the formation of large amplitude localized structures and turbulent spectrum of KAW applicable to magnetopause. The dynamical equations are derived, taking into account the ponderomotive nonlinearity of the KAW as well as the background fluctuations which are in the form of ion acoustic waves. The system is studied numerically as well as semi-analytically. The results reveal that the presence of density fluctuations affects the formation of localized structures. These fluctuations affecting the localization of KAW may also affect heating and acceleration of plasma. Respective turbulent scaling for the different amplitude of background fluctuations has also been studied. The relevance of the numerical results has been discussed with the THEMIS observations near the magnetopause [C. Chaston et al., Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L17S08 (2008)].

• OSTI ID: 22490929
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 22; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ACCELERATION
ALFVEN WAVES
AMPLITUDES
HEATING
ION ACOUSTIC WAVES
MAGNETOPAUSE
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLASMA
PONDEROMOTIVE FORCE
SPECTRA
TURBULENCE
TURBULENT FLOW