No Arabic abstract
Multiscale interaction between the magnetic island and turbulence has been demonstrated through simultaneous two-dimensional measurements of turbulence and temperature and flow profiles. The magnetic island and turbulence mutually interact via the coupling between the electron temperature ($T_e$) gradient, the $T_e$ turbulence, and the poloidal flow. The $T_e$ gradient altered by the magnetic island is peaked outside and flattened inside the island. The $T_e$ turbulence can appear in the increased $T_e$ gradient regions. The combined effects of the $T_e$ gradient and the the poloidal flow shear determine two-dimensional distribution of the $T_e$ turbulence. When the reversed poloidal flow forms, it can maintain the steepest $T_e$ gradient and the magnetic island acts more like a electron heat transport barrier. Interestingly, when the $T_e$ gradient, the $T_e$ turbulence, and the flow shear increase beyond critical levels, the magnetic island turns into a fast electron heat transport channel, which directly leads to the minor disruption.
Radiative diagnostics of high-energy density plasmas is addressed in this paper. We propose that the radiation produced by energetic particles in small-scale magnetic field turbulence, which can occur in laser-plasma experiments, collisionless shocks, and during magnetic reconnection, can be used to deduce some properties of the turbulent magnetic field. Particles propagating through such turbulence encounter locally strong magnetic fields, but over lengths much shorter than a particle gyroradius. Consequently, the particle is accelerated but not deviated substantially from a straight line path. We develop the general jitter radiation solutions for this case and show that the resulting radiation is directly dependent upon the spectral distribution of the magnetic field through which the particle propagates. We demonstrate the power of this approach in considering the radiation produced by particles moving through a region in which a (Weibel-like) filamentation instability grows magnetic fields randomly oriented in a plane transverse to counterstreaming particle populations. We calculate the spectrum as would be seen from the original particle population and as could be seen by using a quasi-monoenergetic electron beam to probe the turbulent region at various angles to the filamentation axis.
Multiple space and time scales arise in plasma turbulence in magnetic confinement fusion devices because of the smallness of the square root of the electron-to-ion mass ratio $(m_e/m_i)^{1/2}$ and the consequent disparity of the ion and electron thermal gyroradii and thermal speeds. Direct simulations of this turbulence that include both ion and electron space-time scales indicate that there can be significant interactions between the two scales. The extreme computational expense and complexity of these direct simulations motivates the desire for reduced treatment. By exploiting the scale separation between ion and electron scales,and expanding the gyrokinetic equations for the turbulence in $(m_e/m_i)^{1/2}$, we derive such a reduced system of gyrokinetic equations that describes cross-scale interactions. The coupled gyrokinetic equations contain novel terms which provide candidate mechanisms for the observed cross-scale interaction. The electron scale turbulence experiences a modified drive due to gradients in the ion scale distribution function, and is advected by the ion scale $E times B$ drift, which varies in the direction parallel to the magnetic field line. The largest possible cross-scale term in the ion scale equations is sub-dominant in our $(m_e/m_i)^{1/2}$ expansion. Hence, in our model the ion scale turbulence evolves independently of the electron scale turbulence. To complete the scale-separated approach, we provide and justify a parallel boundary condition for the coupled gyrokinetic equations in axisymmetric equilibria based on the standard twist-and-shift boundary condition. This approach allows one to simulate multi-scale turbulence using electron scale flux tubes nested within an ion scale flux tube.
We study the intermittency and field-line structure of the MHD turbulence in plasmas with very large magnetic Prandtl numbers. In this regime, which is realized in the interstellar medium, some accretion disks, protogalaxies, galaxy-cluster gas, early Universe, etc., magnetic fluctuations can be excited at scales below the viscous cutoff. The salient feature of the resulting small-scale magnetic turbulence is the folded structure of the fields. It is characterized by very rapid transverse spatial oscillation of the field direction, while the field lines remain largely unbent up to the scale of the flow. Quantitatively, the fluctuation level and the field-line geometry can be studied in terms of the statistics of the field strength and of the field-line curvature. In the kinematic limit, the distribution of the field strength is an expanding lognormal, while that of the field-line curvature K is stationary and has a power tail K^{-13/7}. The field strength and curvature are anticorrelated, i.e. the growing fields are mostly flat, while the sharply curved fields remain relatively weak. The field, therefore, settles into a reduced-tension state. Numerical simulations demonstrate three essential features of the nonlinear regime. First, the total magnetic energy is equal to the total kinetic energy. Second, the intermittency is partially suppressed compared to the kinematic case, as the fields become more volume-filling and their distribution develops an exponential tail. Third, the folding structure of the field is unchanged from the kinematic case: the anticorrelation between the field strength and the curvature persists and the distribution of the latter retains the same power tail. We propose a model of back reaction based on the folding picture that reproduces all of the above numerical results.
Non-Gaussian statistics of large-scale fields are routinely observed in data from atmospheric and oceanic campaigns and global models. Recent direct numerical simulations (DNSs) showed that large-scale intermittency in stably stratified flows is due to the emergence of sporadic, extreme events in the form of bursts in the vertical velocity and the temperature. This phenomenon results from the interplay between waves and turbulent motions, affecting mixing. We provide evidence of the enhancement of the classical small-scale (or internal) intermittency due to the emergence of large-scale drafts, connecting large- and small-scale bursts. To this aim we analyze a large set of DNSs of the stably stratified Boussinesq equations over a wide range of values of the Froude number ($Frapprox 0.01-1$). The variation of the buoyancy field kurtosis with $Fr$ is similar to (though with smaller values than) the kurtosis of the vertical velocity, both showing a non-monotonic trend. We present a mechanism for the generation of extreme vertical drafts and vorticity enhancements which follows from the exact equations for field gradients.
We consider the conditions under which a rotating magnetic object can produce a magnetically powered outflow in an initially unmagnetized medium stratified under gravity. 3D MHD simulations are presented in which the footpoints of localized, arcade-shaped magnetic fields are put into rotation. It is shown how the effectiveness in producing a collimated magnetically powered outflow depends on the rotation rate, the strength and the geometry of the field. The flows produced by uniformly rotating, non-axisymmetric fields are found to consist mainly of buoyant plumes heated by dissipation of rotational energy. Collimated magnetically powered flows are formed if the field and the rotating surface are arranged such that a toroidal magnetic field is produced. This requires a differential rotation of the arcades footpoints. Such jets are well-collimated; we follow their propagation through the stratified atmosphere over 100 times the source size. The magnetic field is tightly wound and its propagation is dominated by the development of non-axisymmetric instabilities. We observe a Poynting flux conversion efficiency of over 75% in the longest simulations. Applications to the collapsar model and protostellar jets are discussed.