Evidence of critical balance in kinetic Alfvén wave turbulence simulations

A numerical simulation of kinetic plasma turbulence is performed to assess the applicability of critical balance to kinetic, dissipation scale turbulence. The analysis is performed in the frequency domain to obviate complications inherent in performing a local analysis of turbulence. A theoretical m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics of plasmas 2012-05, Vol.19 (5), p.055901-055901-8
Main Authors: TenBarge, J. M., Howes, G. G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ALFVEN WAVES
ANISOTROPY
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
FREQUENCY ANALYSIS
PLASMA
PLASMA SIMULATION
TURBULENCE
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Summary:A numerical simulation of kinetic plasma turbulence is performed to assess the applicability of critical balance to kinetic, dissipation scale turbulence. The analysis is performed in the frequency domain to obviate complications inherent in performing a local analysis of turbulence. A theoretical model of dissipation scale critical balance is constructed and compared to simulation results, and excellent agreement is found. This result constitutes the first evidence of critical balance in a kinetic turbulence simulation and provides evidence of an anisotropic turbulence cascade extending into the dissipation range. We also perform an Eulerian frequency analysis of the simulation data and compare it to the results of a previous study of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence simulations.
ISSN:1070-664X
1089-7674
DOI:10.1063/1.3693974