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Plasma turbulence at ion scales: a comparison between particle in cell and Eulerian hybrid-kinetic approaches

Part of: Focus on Space Plasmas PLA The Vlasov Equation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2017

S. S. Cerri ,
L. Franci ,
F. Califano ,
S. Landi  and
P. Hellinger Open the ORCID record for P. Hellinger [Opens in a new window]
S. S. Cerri*
Affiliation:
Physics Department ‘E. Fermi’, University of Pisa, Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, I-56127 Pisa, Italy
L. Franci*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Largo E. Fermi 2, I-50125 Firenze, Italy INFN – Sezione di Firenze, Via G. Sansone 1, I-50019 Sesto F.no (Firenze), Italy
F. Califano
Affiliation:
Physics Department ‘E. Fermi’, University of Pisa, Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, I-56127 Pisa, Italy
S. Landi
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Largo E. Fermi 2, I-50125 Firenze, Italy INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, I-50125 Firenze, Italy
P. Hellinger
Affiliation:
Astronomical Institute, CAS, Bocni II/1401, CZ-14100 Prague, Czech Republic
*
†Email addresses for correspondence: silvio.cerri@df.unipi.it, franci@arcetri.astro.it
†Email addresses for correspondence: silvio.cerri@df.unipi.it, franci@arcetri.astro.it
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Abstract

Kinetic-range turbulence in magnetized plasmas and, in particular, in the context of solar wind turbulence has been extensively investigated over the past decades via numerical simulations. Among others, one of the widely adopted reduced plasma models is the so-called hybrid-kinetic model, where the ions are fully kinetic and the electrons are treated as a neutralizing (inertial or massless) fluid. Within the same model, different numerical methods and/or approaches to turbulence development have been employed. In the present work, we present a comparison between two-dimensional hybrid-kinetic simulations of plasma turbulence obtained with two complementary approaches spanning approximately two decades in wavenumber – from the magnetohydrodynamics inertial range to scales well below the ion gyroradius – with a state-of-the-art accuracy. One approach employs hybrid particle-in-cell simulations of freely decaying Alfvénic turbulence, whereas the other consists of Eulerian hybrid Vlasov–Maxwell simulations of turbulence continuously driven with partially compressible large-scale fluctuations. Despite the completely different initialization and injection/drive at large scales, the same properties of turbulent fluctuations at $k_{\bot }\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{i}\gtrsim 1$ are observed, where $k_{\bot }$ is the fluctuations’ wavenumber perpendicular to the background magnetic field and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{i}$ is the ion Larmor radius. The system indeed self-consistently ‘reprocesses’ the turbulent fluctuations while they are cascading towards smaller and smaller scales, in a way which actually depends on the plasma beta parameter ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ is the ratio between the thermal and the magnetic pressures). Small-scale turbulence has been found to be mainly populated by kinetic Alfvén wave (KAW) fluctuations for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\geqslant 1$, whereas KAW fluctuations are only sub-dominant for low-$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$.

Keywords

astrophysical plasmasmagnetized plasmasspace plasma physics
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 83 , Issue 2 , April 2017 , 705830202
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2017 

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