Kinetic Simulation of the Dissipation of a Turbulent Cascade

Abstract:

The solar wind fluctuations undergo a turbulent cascade that presumably results, in some unknown fashion, in the deposition of energy into randomized motions, i.e. "heating." The observed evolution of spectra, cross-helicity, and non-adiabatic thermal properties of the plasma provide strong evidence for a nonlinear cascade, but the currently available temporal/spatial resolution of (mostly) single spacecraft measurments leaves many questions open. Large-scale particle-in-cell simulations allow us to explore the fate of cascading energy from "MHD" scales to the scales where wave-particle interactions become important. Simulations to date have shown a number of characteristics similar to that of solar wind plasma, including steeper magnetic spectra parallel to the mean magnetic field than perpendicular to it, a spectral break near the ion inertial length, and bounded anisotropic temperatures. Detailed analysis has revealed “magnetic holes” and nonthermal particle distributions. We are in the process of analyzing a variety of initial conditions as well as looking in more detail at issues such as nonlinear vs linear dynamics, and of how distribution functions vary with conditions in the plasma. This paper will report latest results on these and other issues.