Turbulence in Magnetized Pair Plasmas

Abstract

Alfvénic-type turbulence in strongly magnetized, low-beta pair plasmas is investigated. A coupled set of equations for the evolution of the magnetic and flow potentials are derived, covering both fluid and kinetic scales. In the fluid (MHD) range those equations are the same as for electron-ion plasmas, so turbulence at those scales is expected to be of the Alfvénic nature, exhibiting critical balance, dynamic alignment, and transition to a tearing mediated regime at small scales. The critical scale at which a transition to a tearing-mediated range occurs is derived, and the spectral slope in that range is predicted to be $k_{\perp }^{-8/3}$ (or $k_{\perp }^{-3}$, depending on details of the reconnecting configuration assumed). At scales below the electron (and positron) skin depth, it is argued that turbulence is dictated by a cascade of the inertial Alfvén wave, which we show to result in the magnetic energy spectrum $\propto k_{\perp }^{-11/3}$.

submitted for publication

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Cited by in corpus (16)

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• Nonlinear Reconnection in Magnetized Turbulence
• Turbulence and particle acceleration in a relativistic plasma
• Dynamic Phase Alignment in Inertial Alfven Turbulence
• Spectra of magnetic turbulence in a relativistic plasma
• Spatial intermittency of particle distribution in relativistic plasma turbulence
• Wave Turbulence in Inertial Electron Magnetohydrodynamics
• The effects of finite electron inertia on helicity-barrier-mediated turbulence
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• Particle acceleration and pitch-angle evolution in relativistic turbulence
• On the Effect of Driving Turbulent-like Fluctuations on a Harris-Current Sheet Configuration and the Formation of Plasmoids
• Whistler-Alfvén turbulence in a non-neutral ultrarelativistic pair plasma
• Fully kinetic shearing-box simulations of magnetorotational turbulence in 2D and 3D. I. Pair plasmas