Numerical Measurements of the Spectrum in Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence
Abstract
We report the results of an extensive set of direct numerical simulations of forced, incompressible, magnetohydrodynamic turbulence with a strong guide field. The aim is to resolve the controversy regarding the power law exponent (\alpha, say) of the field perpendicular energy spectrum E(k_\perp) \propto k_\perp ^ {\alpha}. The two main theoretical predictions, \alpha=-3/2 and \alpha=-5/3, have both received some support from numerical simulations carried out by different groups. Our simulations have a resolution of 512^3 mesh points, a strong guide field, an anisotropic simulation domain, and implement a broad range of large-scale forcing routines, including those previously reported in the literature. Our findings indicate that the spectrum of well developed, strong incompressible MHD turbulence with a strong guide field is E(k_{\perp})\propto k_{\perp}^{-3/2}.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0706.2003,
title = {Numerical Measurements of the Spectrum in Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence},
author = {Joanne Mason and Fausto Cattaneo and Stanislav Boldyrev},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0706.2003},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
4 pages, 2 figures