English

Spectrum of Kinetic Alfven Turbulence

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2015-06-04 v1 Plasma Physics

Abstract

A model for strong kinetic Alfv\'en plasma turbulence at scales smaller than the ion gyroscale is proposed. It is argued that magnetic and density fluctuations are concentrated mostly at two-dimensional structures, which leads to their Fourier energy spectra E(k)k8/3E(k_\perp)\propto k_{\perp}^{-8/3}, where kk_\perp is the wave-vector component normal to the strong background magnetic field. The results are shown to be in good agreement with numerical simulations, and they can explain recent observations of magnetic and density fluctuations in the solar wind at sub-proton scales.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1204.5809,
  title  = {Spectrum of Kinetic Alfven Turbulence},
  author = {Stanislav Boldyrev and Jean C Perez},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1204.5809},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

5 pages, 3 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett