Hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell simulations of two-dimensional turbulence in plasmas
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria, I-87036 Rende (CS) (Italy)
- LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, 92190 Meudon (France)
- Dipartimento di Fisica and CNISM, Università di Pisa, 56127 Pisa (Italy)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716 (United States)
Turbulence in plasmas is a very challenging problem since it involves wave-particle interactions, which are responsible for phenomena such as plasma dissipation, acceleration mechanisms, heating, temperature anisotropy, and so on. In this work, a hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell numerical code is employed to study local kinetic processes in a two-dimensional turbulent regime. In the present model, ions are treated as a kinetic species, while electrons are considered as a fluid. As recently reported in [S. Servidio, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 045001 (2012)], nearby regions of strong magnetic activity, kinetic effects manifest through a deformation of the ion velocity distribution function that consequently departs from the equilibrium Maxwellian configuration. Here, the structure of turbulence is investigated in detail in phase space, by evaluating the high-order moments of the particle velocity distribution, i.e., temperature, skewness, and kurtosis. This analysis provides quantitative information about the non-Maxwellian character of the system dynamics. This departure from local thermodynamic equilibrium triggers several processes commonly observed in many astrophysical and laboratory plasmas.
- OSTI ID:
- 22303770
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 8; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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