Freely decaying turbulence in two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics

In magnetized plasmas, a turbulent cascade occurs in phase space at scales smaller than the thermal Larmor radius ("sub-Larmor scales") [Tatsuno et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 015003 (2009)]. When the turbulence is restricted to two spatial dimensions perpendicular to the background magneti...

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Главные авторы: Tatsuno, T, Plunk, G, Barnes, M, Dorland, W, Howes, G, Numata, R
Формат: Journal article
Язык:English
Опубликовано: 2012
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author Tatsuno, T
Plunk, G
Barnes, M
Dorland, W
Howes, G
Numata, R
author_facet Tatsuno, T
Plunk, G
Barnes, M
Dorland, W
Howes, G
Numata, R
author_sort Tatsuno, T
collection OXFORD
description In magnetized plasmas, a turbulent cascade occurs in phase space at scales smaller than the thermal Larmor radius ("sub-Larmor scales") [Tatsuno et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 015003 (2009)]. When the turbulence is restricted to two spatial dimensions perpendicular to the background magnetic field, two independent cascades may take place simultaneously because of the presence of two collisionless invariants. In the present work, freely decaying turbulence of two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics is investigated by means of phenomenological theory and direct numerical simulations. A dual cascade (forward and inverse cascades) is observed in velocity space as well as in position space, which we diagnose by means of nonlinear transfer functions for the collisionless invariants. We find that the turbulence tends to a time-asymptotic state, dominated by a single scale that grows in time. A theory of this asymptotic state is derived in the form of decay laws. Each case that we study falls into one of three regimes (weakly collisional, marginal, and strongly collisional), determined by a dimensionless number D*, a quantity analogous to the Reynolds number. The marginal state is marked by a critical number D*=D0 that is preserved in time. Turbulence initialized above this value become increasingly inertial in time, evolving toward larger and larger D*; turbulence initialized below D0 become more and more collisional, decaying to progressively smaller D*. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.
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spelling oxford-uuid:c27ba5bf-8d78-4db2-979d-e3fc66d4e8ce2022-03-27T06:09:16ZFreely decaying turbulence in two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokineticsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:c27ba5bf-8d78-4db2-979d-e3fc66d4e8ceEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2012Tatsuno, TPlunk, GBarnes, MDorland, WHowes, GNumata, RIn magnetized plasmas, a turbulent cascade occurs in phase space at scales smaller than the thermal Larmor radius ("sub-Larmor scales") [Tatsuno et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 015003 (2009)]. When the turbulence is restricted to two spatial dimensions perpendicular to the background magnetic field, two independent cascades may take place simultaneously because of the presence of two collisionless invariants. In the present work, freely decaying turbulence of two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics is investigated by means of phenomenological theory and direct numerical simulations. A dual cascade (forward and inverse cascades) is observed in velocity space as well as in position space, which we diagnose by means of nonlinear transfer functions for the collisionless invariants. We find that the turbulence tends to a time-asymptotic state, dominated by a single scale that grows in time. A theory of this asymptotic state is derived in the form of decay laws. Each case that we study falls into one of three regimes (weakly collisional, marginal, and strongly collisional), determined by a dimensionless number D*, a quantity analogous to the Reynolds number. The marginal state is marked by a critical number D*=D0 that is preserved in time. Turbulence initialized above this value become increasingly inertial in time, evolving toward larger and larger D*; turbulence initialized below D0 become more and more collisional, decaying to progressively smaller D*. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.
spellingShingle Tatsuno, T
Plunk, G
Barnes, M
Dorland, W
Howes, G
Numata, R
Freely decaying turbulence in two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics
title Freely decaying turbulence in two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics
title_full Freely decaying turbulence in two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics
title_fullStr Freely decaying turbulence in two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics
title_full_unstemmed Freely decaying turbulence in two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics
title_short Freely decaying turbulence in two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics
title_sort freely decaying turbulence in two dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics
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AT plunkg freelydecayingturbulenceintwodimensionalelectrostaticgyrokinetics
AT barnesm freelydecayingturbulenceintwodimensionalelectrostaticgyrokinetics
AT dorlandw freelydecayingturbulenceintwodimensionalelectrostaticgyrokinetics
AT howesg freelydecayingturbulenceintwodimensionalelectrostaticgyrokinetics
AT numatar freelydecayingturbulenceintwodimensionalelectrostaticgyrokinetics