Magnetized compressible turbulence with a fluctuation dynamo and Reynolds numbers over a million

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Autori principali: Beattie, James R., Federrath, Christoph, Klessen, Ralf S., Cielo, Salvatore, Bhattacharjee, Amitava
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Beattie, James R.
Federrath, Christoph
Klessen, Ralf S.
Cielo, Salvatore
Bhattacharjee, Amitava
author_facet Beattie, James R.
Federrath, Christoph
Klessen, Ralf S.
Cielo, Salvatore
Bhattacharjee, Amitava
contents Supersonic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is a ubiquitous state for many astrophysical plasmas. However, even the basic statistics for this type of turbulence remains uncertain. We present results from supersonic MHD turbulence simulations at unparalleled resolutions, with plasma Reynolds numbers of over a million. In the kinetic energy spectrum we find a break between the scales that are dominated by kinetic energy, with spectral index $-2$, and those that become strongly magnetized, with spectral index $-3/2$. By analyzing the Helmholtz decomposed kinetic energy spectrum, we find that the compressible modes are not passively mixed through the cascade of the incompressible modes. At high magnetic Reynolds number, above $10^5$, we find a power law in the magnetic energy spectrum with spectral index $-9/5$. On the strongly magnetized, subsonic scales the plasma tends to self-organize into locally relaxed regions, where there is strong alignment between the current density, magnetic field, velocity field and vorticity field, depleting both the nonlinearities and magnetic terms in the MHD equations, which we attribute to plasma relaxation on scales where the magnetic fluctuations evolve on shorter timescales than the velocity fluctuations. This process constrains the cascade to inhomogenous, volume-poor, fractal surfaces between relaxed regions, which has significant repercussions for understanding the nature of magnetized turbulence in astrophysical plasmas and the saturation of the fluctuation dynamo.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_16626
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Magnetized compressible turbulence with a fluctuation dynamo and Reynolds numbers over a million
Beattie, James R.
Federrath, Christoph
Klessen, Ralf S.
Cielo, Salvatore
Bhattacharjee, Amitava
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Computational Physics
Fluid Dynamics
Plasma Physics
Supersonic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is a ubiquitous state for many astrophysical plasmas. However, even the basic statistics for this type of turbulence remains uncertain. We present results from supersonic MHD turbulence simulations at unparalleled resolutions, with plasma Reynolds numbers of over a million. In the kinetic energy spectrum we find a break between the scales that are dominated by kinetic energy, with spectral index $-2$, and those that become strongly magnetized, with spectral index $-3/2$. By analyzing the Helmholtz decomposed kinetic energy spectrum, we find that the compressible modes are not passively mixed through the cascade of the incompressible modes. At high magnetic Reynolds number, above $10^5$, we find a power law in the magnetic energy spectrum with spectral index $-9/5$. On the strongly magnetized, subsonic scales the plasma tends to self-organize into locally relaxed regions, where there is strong alignment between the current density, magnetic field, velocity field and vorticity field, depleting both the nonlinearities and magnetic terms in the MHD equations, which we attribute to plasma relaxation on scales where the magnetic fluctuations evolve on shorter timescales than the velocity fluctuations. This process constrains the cascade to inhomogenous, volume-poor, fractal surfaces between relaxed regions, which has significant repercussions for understanding the nature of magnetized turbulence in astrophysical plasmas and the saturation of the fluctuation dynamo.
title Magnetized compressible turbulence with a fluctuation dynamo and Reynolds numbers over a million
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Computational Physics
Fluid Dynamics
Plasma Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.16626