Fully kinetic large scale simulations of the collisionless Magnetorotational instability

Abstract

We present two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of the fully kinetic collisionless magnetorotational instability (MRI) in weakly magnetized (high $\beta$) pair plasma. The central result of this numerical analysis is the emergence of a self-induced turbulent regime in the saturation state of the collisionless MRI, which can only be captured for large enough simulation domains. One of the underlying mechanisms for the development of this turbulent state is the drift-kink instability (DKI) of the current sheets resulting from the nonlinear evolution of the channel modes. The onset of the DKI can only be observed for simulation domain sizes exceeding several linear MRI wavelengths. The DKI, together with ensuing magnetic reconnection, activate the turbulent motion of the plasma in the late stage of the nonlinear evolution of the MRI. At steady state, the magnetic energy has an MHD-like spectrum with a slope of $k^{-5/3}$ for $k\rho <1$ and $k^{-3}$ for sub-Larmor scale ($k\rho >1$). We also examine the role of the collisionless MRI and associated magnetic reconnection in the development of pressure anisotropy. We study the stability of the system due to this pressure anisotropy, observing the development of mirror instability during the early-stage of the MRI. We further discuss the importance of magnetic reconnection for particle acceleration during the turbulence regime. In particular, consistent with reconnection studies, we show that at late times the kinetic energy presents a characteristic slope of ${\epsilon }^{-2}$ in the high-energy region.

arXiv comment13 pages, 9 figures, accepted to Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (35)

• Astrophysical gyrokinetics: kinetic and fluid turbulent cascades in magnetized weakly collisional plasmas
• Relativistic Reconnection: an Efficient Source of Non-Thermal Particles
• Kinetic Simulations of Magnetized Turbulence in Astrophysical Plasmas
• The Generation of Nonthermal Particles in the Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection of Pair Plasmas
• The extent of power-law energy spectra in collisionless relativistic magnetic reconnection in pair plasmas
• Firehose and Mirror Instabilities in a Collisionless Shearing Plasma
• On the relativistic magnetic reconnection
• Electron Heating in Hot Accretion Flows
• Anisotropy of Solar Wind Turbulence between Ion and Electron Scales
• Shearing Box Simulations of the MRI in a Collisionless Plasma
• Spectrum of Kinetic Alfven Turbulence
• A Review of the 0.1 Reconnection Rate Problem
• Magnetic reconnection as a driver for a sub-ion scale cascade in plasma turbulence
• The Magnetorotational Instability in a Collisionless Plasma
• Exploiting multi-scale parallelism for large scale numerical modelling of laser wakefield accelerators
• Parallel electric fields are inefficient drivers of energetic electrons in magnetic reconnection
• Magnetorotational Turbulence and Dynamo in a Collisionless Plasma
• Collisionless Reconnection in Magnetohydrodynamic and Kinetic Turbulence
• PIC Simulations of Continuously Driven Mirror and Ion Cyclotron Instabilities in High Beta Astrophysical and Heliospheric Plasmas
• Disruption of Alfvénic turbulence by magnetic reconnection in a collisionless plasma
• Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flow Models of Sgr A*
• Scaling of magnetic reconnection in relativistic collisionless plasmas
• MRI channel flows and their parasites
• Local 2D Particle-in-cell simulations of the collisionless MRI
• On the Saturation of the Magnetorotational Instability via Parasitic Modes
• Inertial-Range Kinetic Turbulence in Pressure-Anisotropic Astrophysical Plasmas
• Relativistic Particle Acceleration in a Folded Current Sheet
• Particle Acceleration during Magnetorotational Instability in a Collisionless Accretion Disk
• Transition from collisionless to collisional MRI
• Angular Momentum Transport and Particle Acceleration during Magnetorotational Instability in a Kinetic Accretion Disk
• Apar-T: code, validation, and physical interpretation of particle-in-cell results
• Pressure-anisotropy-driven microturbulence and magnetic-field evolution in shearing, collisionless plasma
• A model for the non-universal power-law of the solar wind sub-ion scale magnetic spectrum
• Models of magnetic-field evolution and effective viscosity in weakly collisional extragalactic plasmas
• The Weak Field Limit of the Magnetorotational Instability

Cited by in corpus (13)

• First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. V. Testing Astrophysical Models of the Galactic Center Black Hole
• Electron and ion energization in relativistic plasma turbulence
• Particle energization in relativistic plasma turbulence: solenoidal versus compressive driving
• Shearing-box simulations of MRI-driven turbulence in weakly collisional accretion discs
• Turbulence in Magnetized Pair Plasmas
• Particle Diffusion and Acceleration in Magnetorotational Instability Turbulence
• Structure of a collisionless pair jet in a magnetized electron-proton plasma: flow-aligned magnetic field
• Onset of magnetic reconnection in a collisionless, high-beta plasma
• Inertial range of magnetorotational turbulence
• First-principles measurement of ion and electron energization in collisionless accretion flow
• Visualization of high-intensity laser-matter interactions in virtual reality and web browser
• Local magneto-shear instability in Newtonian gravity
• Fully kinetic shearing-box simulations of magnetorotational turbulence in 2D and 3D. I. Pair plasmas