Free Energy Cascade in Gyrokinetic Turbulence

Journal Article · Fri Feb 04 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.106.055001· OSTI ID:21532281

Banon Navarro, A; Morel, P; Albrecht-Marc, M; Carati, D ^[1]; Merz, F; Goerler, T; Jenko, F ^[2]

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1. Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Faculte des Sciences, Physique Statistique et Plasmas CP 231, EURATOM Association, Campus Plaine, 1050 Brussels (Belgium)
2. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Plasmaphysik, EURATOM Association, 85748 Garching (Germany)

In gyrokinetic theory, the quadratic nonlinearity is known to play an important role in the dynamics by redistributing (in a conservative fashion) the free energy between the various active scales. In the present study, the free energy transfer is analyzed for the case of ion temperature gradient driven turbulence. It is shown that it shares many properties with the energy transfer in fluid turbulence. In particular, one finds a (strongly) local, forward (from large to small scales) cascade of free energy in the plane perpendicular to the background magnetic field. These findings shed light on some fundamental properties of plasma turbulence, and encourage the development of large-eddy-simulation techniques for gyrokinetics.

• OSTI ID: 21532281
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.055001; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ENERGY TRANSFER
FREE ENERGY
ION TEMPERATURE
LARGE-EDDY SIMULATION
MAGNETIC FIELDS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS
TURBULENT FLOW
VISIBLE RADIATION
WASTE HEAT UTILIZATION
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ENERGY
FLUID FLOW
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADIATIONS
SIMULATION
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
WASTE PRODUCT UTILIZATION