English

Energy decay laws in strongly anisotropic MHD turbulence

Fluid Dynamics 2009-11-13 v1 Plasma Physics

Abstract

We investigate the influence of a uniform magnetic field B0=B0e//{\bf B_0}=B_0 e// on energy decay laws in incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. The nonlinear transfer reduction along B0B_0 is included in a model that distinguishes parallel and perpendicular directions, following a phenomenology {\it \`a la} Kraichnan. We predict a slowing down of the energy decay due to anisotropy in the limit of strong B0B_0, with distinct power laws for energy decay of shear- and pseudo-Alfv\'en waves. Numerical results from the kinetic equations of Alfv\'en wave turbulence recover these predictions, and MHD numerical results clearly tend to follow them in the lowest perpendicular planes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0712.2024,
  title  = {Energy decay laws in strongly anisotropic MHD turbulence},
  author = {Barbara Bigot and Sebastien Galtier and Helene Politano},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0712.2024},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

4 pages, 3 figures