Modeling Kelvin-Helmholtz instability-driven turbulence with hybrid simulations of Alfvénic turbulence

Abstract

Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations of plasma turbulence generated by a Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) event at the Earth's magnetopause are compared with a high-resolution two-dimensional (2D) hybrid direct numerical simulation (DNS) of decaying plasma turbulence driven by large-scale balanced Alfvénic fluctuations. The simulation, set up with four observation-driven physical parameters (ion and electron betas, turbulence strength, and injection scale) exhibits a quantitative agreement on the spectral, intermittency, and cascade-rate properties with in situ observations, despite the different driving mechanisms. Such agreement demonstrates a certain universality of the turbulent cascade from magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) to sub-ion scales, whose properties are mainly determined by the selected parameters, also indicating that the KH instability-driven turbulence has a quasi-2D nature. The validity of the Taylor hypothesis in the sub-ion spatial range suggests that the fluctuations at sub-ion scales have predominantly low frequencies, consistent with a kinetic Alfvén wave-like nature or with quasi-static structures. Finally, the third-order structure function analysis indicates that the cascade rate of the turbulence generated by a KH event in the magnetopause is an order of magnitude larger than in the ambient magnetosheath.

arXiv comment11 pages, 6 figures, submitted to The Astrophysical Journal

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• Spectral transfer and Kármán-Howarth-Monin equations for compressible Hall magnetohydrodynamics
• Spectral properties and energy transfer at kinetic scales in collisionless plasma turbulence
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• Multidimensional Iterative Filtering: a new approach for investigating plasma turbulence in numerical simulations
• Kelvin-Helmholtz instability at proton scales with an exact kinetic equilibrium
• Kinetic features for the identification of Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices in \textit{in situ} observations
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• Anisotropic electron heating in turbulence-driven magnetic reconnection in the near-Sun solar wind
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