Energy spectrum of tearing mode turbulence in sheared background field

Hu, Di; Bhattacharjee, Amitava; Huang, Yi-Min

doi:10.1063/1.5022292

Title: Energy spectrum of tearing mode turbulence in sheared background field

Journal Article · 05 June 2018 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5022292 · OSTI ID:1543854

Hu, Di ^[1]; Bhattacharjee, Amitava ^[2];

^[2]

Peking Univ., Beijing (China); ITER Organization, St. Paul Lez Durance (France); Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States); Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)

The energy spectrum of tearing mode turbulence in a sheared background magnetic field is explored in this work. We observe the scenario where the nonlinear interaction of overlapping large-scale modes excites a broad spectrum of small-scale modes, generating tearing mode turbulence. The spectrum of such turbulence is of interest since it is relevant to the small-scale back-reaction on the large-scale field. The turbulence we report on here differs from traditional MHD turbulence mainly in two aspects. One is the existence of many linearly stable small-scale modes which cause an effective damping during the energy cascade. The other is the scale-independent anisotropy induced by the large-scale modes tilting the sheared background field, as opposed to the scale-dependent anisotropy frequently encountered in traditional critically balanced turbulence theories. Due to these two differences, the energy spectrum deviates from a simple power law and takes the form of a power law multiplied by an exponential falloff. Numerical simulations are carried out using visco-resistive MHD equations to verify our theoretical predictions, and a reasonable agreement is found between the numerical results and our model.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: China Scholarship Council; National Natural Science Foundation of China; USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0016470

OSTI ID:: 1543854

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 25; ISSN 1070-664X

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

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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