Direct and Inverse Cascades in the Acceleration Region of the Fast Solar Wind

TL;DR

This study uses RMHD simulations to explore how nonlinear wave interactions in the solar wind lead to energy transfer across scales, revealing inverse cascades that challenge existing models of solar wind heating.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates that inverse and direct cascades occur in the solar wind's acceleration region, with cascade rates highly dependent on perpendicular wavenumber and radial distance, highlighting limitations of RMHD models.

Findings

Inverse cascade occurs between 1.4 and 2.5 R_sun for certain wavenumbers

Cascade rates vary significantly with perpendicular wavenumber

Inverse cascades result in lower energy dissipation than expected

Abstract

Alfv\'{e}n waves are believed to play an important role in the heating and acceleration of the fast solar wind emanating from coronal holes. Nonlinear interactions between the dominant ${\bf z}_{+}$ waves and minority ${\bf z}_{-}$ waves have the potential to transfer wave energy either to smaller perpendicular scales ("direct cascade") or to larger scales ("inverse cascade"). In this paper we use reduced magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) simulations to investigate how the cascade rates $\epsilon_{\pm}$ depend on perpendicular wavenumber and radial distance from Sun center. For models with a smooth background atmosphere we find that an inverse cascade ($\epsilon_{+} < 0$) occurs for the dominant waves at radii between 1.4 and 2.5 $R_\odot$ and dimensionless wavenumbers in the inertial range ($15 < a_\perp < 44$), and a direct cascade ($\epsilon_{+} > 0$) occurs elsewhere. For a model with density fluctuations there are multiple regions with inverse cascade. In both cases the cascade rate $\epsilon_{+}$ varies significantly with perpendicular wavenumber, indicating that the cacsade is a highly non-local process. As a result of the inverse cascades, the enery dissipation rates are much lower than expected from a phenomenological model, and are insufficient to maintain the temperature of the background atmosphere. We conclude that RMHD models are unable to reproduce the observed properties of the fast solar wind.