arXiv · astro-ph/0602382
Dynamic Alignment in Driven Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence
Abstract
Motivated by recent analytic predictions, we report numerical evidence showing that in driven incompressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence the magnetic- and velocity-field fluctuations locally tend to align the directions of their polarizations. This dynamic alignment is stronger at smaller scales with the angular mismatch between the polarizations decreasing with the scale λapproximately as θ_λ~ λ^{1/4}. This can naturally lead to a weakening of the nonlinear interactions and provide an explanation for the energy spectrum E(k) ~ k^{-3/2} that is observed in numerical experiments of strongly magnetized turbulence.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Explore connections, maps & timelines
Joanne Mason, Fausto Cattaneo, Stanislav Boldyrev. 2006-12-21. Dynamic Alignment in Driven Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.97.255002
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.