Role of reconnection in inertial kinetic-Alfvén turbulence
Name
PhysRevResearch.1.012006.pdf
Description
Published version
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247.48 KB
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Author(s)
Boldyrev, Stanislav
Gomes Loureiro, Nuno F
Date Issued
August 2019
Journal
Physical review research
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Citation
Boldyrev, Stanislav, and Nuno F. Loureiro, "Role of reconnection in inertial kinetic-Alfvén turbulence." Physical review research 1 (2019): no. 012006. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.1.012006 ©2019 Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
In a weakly collisional, low-electron-beta plasma, large-scale Alfvén turbulence transforms into inertial kinetic-Alfvén turbulence at scales smaller than the ion microscale (gyroscale or inertial scale). We propose that at such kinetic scales, the nonlinear dynamics tends to organize turbulent eddies into thin current sheets, consistent with the existence of two conserved integrals of the ideal equations, energy and helicity. The formation of strongly anisotropic structures is arrested by the tearing instability that sets a critical aspect ratio of the eddies at each scale a in the plane perpendicular to the guide field. This aspect ratio is defined by the balance of the eddy turnover rate and the tearing rate, and varies from (d [subscript]e / a)¹ / ² to d [subscript]e / a depending on the assumed profile of the current sheets. The energy spectrum of the resulting turbulence varies from k -⁸ / ³ to k -³ , and the corresponding spectral anisotropy with respect to the strong background magnetic field from [mathematical equation; see source] to [mathematical equation; see source].
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
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DOI of Published Version
10.1103/PHYSREVRESEARCH.1.012006
