The origins of $k^{-2}$ spectrum in the decaying Taylor-Green magnetohydrodynamic turbulent flows

Abstract

We investigate the origins of $k^{-2}$ spectrum in a decaying Taylor-Green magnetohydrodynamic flow with zero large scale magnetic flux that was reported in Lee et al. (2010). A possible candidate for this scaling exponent has been the weak turbulence phenomenology. From our numerical simulations, we observe that current sheets in the magnetic Taylor-Green flow are formed in regions of magnetic discontinuities. Based on this observation and by studying the influence of the current sheets on the energy spectrum, using a filtering technique, we argue that the discontinuities are responsible for the $-2$ power law scaling of the energy spectra of this flow.

8 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Burgers Turbulence
• Energy spectra stemming from interactions of Alfven waves and turbulent eddies
• Structures and dynamics of small scales in decaying magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
• A paradigmatic flow for small-scale magnetohydrodynamics: properties of the ideal case and the collision of current sheets

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Quantum turbulence in trapped atomic Bose-Einstein condensates
• A new class of finite element variational multiscale turbulence models for incompressible magnetohydrodynamics
• Varieties of scaling regimes in hydromagnetic turbulence
• Magnetized Decaying Turbulence in the Weakly Compressible Taylor-Green Vortex