Investigating the ion-scale spectral properties of solar wind turbulence with high-resolution hybrid simulations

Abstract:

We investigate the properties of the solar wind turbulence from MHD to sub-ion scales by means of two-dimensional, large-scale, high-resolution hybrid particle-in-cell simulations. These constitute the most accurate hybrid simulations of ion-scale turbulence ever presented so far, and let us explore a very wide range of scales, i.e., three decades in wave vectors simultaneously. We impose an initial ambient magnetic field perpendicular to the simulation box, and we add a spectrum of in-plane large-scale magnetic and kinetic fluctuations, with energy equipartition and vanishing correlation. We perform a set of simulations with many different values of two fundamental parameters, i.e., the plasma beta, β, and the amplitude of the initial fluctuations, B^rms, in order to investigate their relevance in determining the spectral properties of the turbulent cascade around ion scales. Once turbulence is fully developed, we observe the power spectrum of the magnetic fluctuations following a power law with a spectral index of -5/3 in the inertial range, with a spectral break around ion scales and a steeper power law in the sub-ion range. The scale at which the steepening of the spectrum occurs changes when exploring the (β,B^rms) parameter space. Such a movement of the spectral break is clearer when looking at the spectra of the parallel magnetic fluctuations and of the density fluctuations. Moreover, these share the same power law behavior at sub-ion scales, exhibiting a spectral index of -2.8, which seems to be independent on the values of the two varying parameters. We compare our results with solar wind observations, and we suggest possible explanations for such behavior.