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The Alfvénic nature of energy transfer mediation in localized, strongly nonlinear Alfvén wavepacket collisions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2018

J. L. Verniero  and
G. G. Howes Open the ORCID record for G. G. Howes [Opens in a new window]
J. L. Verniero*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
G. G. Howes
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

In space and astrophysical plasmas, violent events or instabilities inject energy into turbulent motions at large scales. Nonlinear interactions among the turbulent fluctuations drive a cascade of energy to small perpendicular scales at which the energy is ultimately converted into plasma heat. Previous work with the incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations has shown that this turbulent energy cascade is driven by the nonlinear interaction between counterpropagating Alfvén waves – also known as Alfvén wave collisions. Direct numerical simulations of weakly collisional plasma turbulence enables deeper insight into the nature of the nonlinear interactions underlying the turbulent cascade of energy. In this paper, we directly compare four cases: both periodic and localized Alfvén wave collisions in the weakly and strongly nonlinear limits. Our results reveal that in the more realistic case of localized Alfvén wave collisions (rather than the periodic case), all nonlinearly generated fluctuations are Alfvén waves, which mediates nonlinear energy transfer to smaller perpendicular scales.

Keywords

plasma nonlinear phenomenaplasma wavesspace plasma physics
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 84 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , 905840109
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018 

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