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arXiv · 1105.1941

Turbulent spectra and spectral kinks in the transition range from MHD to kinetic Alfvén turbulence

Yuriy Voitenko·Johan De Keyser
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Abstract

A weakly dispersive sub-range (WDR) of kinetic Alfvén turbulence is distinguished and investigated for the first time in the context of MHD/kinetic turbulence transition. We found perpendicular wavenumber spectra ~ k^{-3} and ~ k^{-4} formed in WDR by strong and weak turbulence of kinetic Alfvén waves (KAWs), respectively. These steep WDR spectra connect shallower spectra in the MHD and strongly dispersive KAW sub-ranges, which results in a specific double-kink (2-k) pattern often seen in observed turbulent spectra. The first kink occurs where MHD turbulence transforms into weakly dispersive KAW turbulence; the second one is between weakly and strongly dispersive KAW sub-ranges. Our analysis suggests that the partial turbulence dissipation due to amplitude-dependent super-adiabatic ion heating may occur in the vicinity of the first spectral kink. A threshold-like nature of this process results in a conditional selective dissipation affecting only largest over-threshold amplitudes and decreasing intermittency in the range below the first spectral kink. Several recent counter-intuitive observational findings can be explained by the selective dissipation coupled to the nonlinear interaction among weakly dispersive KAWs.

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Yuriy Voitenko, Johan De Keyser. 2011-05-10. Turbulent spectra and spectral kinks in the transition range from MHD to kinetic Alfvén turbulence. https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-18-587-2011

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