Scale-locality of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV.
We investigate the scale-locality of cascades of conserved invariants at high kinetic and magnetic Reynolds numbers in the 'inertial-inductive range' of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence, where velocity and magnetic field increments exhibit suitable power-law scaling. We prove that fluxes of total energy and cross-helicity - or, equivalently, fluxes of Elsaesser energies - are dominated by the contributions of local triads. Corresponding spectral transfers are also scale-local when defined using octave wavenumber bands. Flux and transfer of magnetic helicity may be dominated by nonlocal triads. The magnetic stretching term also may be dominated by non-local triads but we prove that it can convert energy only between velocity and magnetic modes at comparable scales. We explain the disagreement with numerical studies that have claimed conversion non locally between disparate scales. We present supporting data from a 1024{sup 3} simulation of forced MHD turbulence.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- OSTI ID:
- 971311
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-09-06199; LA-UR-09-6199; PRLTAO; TRN: US1001156
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters; ISSN 0031-9007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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