# Nonlinear energy transfer and current sheet development in localized Alfven wavepacket collisions in the strong turbulence limit

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates through gyrokinetic simulations that localized Alfven wavepacket collisions in space plasmas effectively transfer energy to smaller scales and generate current sheets, even when kinetic effects are considered.

## Contribution

It extends previous idealized models by showing that key properties of energy transfer and current sheet formation persist in more realistic wavepacket collisions including kinetic effects.

## Key findings

- Wavepacket collisions facilitate perpendicular energy cascade.
- Current sheets are formed during wavepacket overlap.
- Nonlinear interactions cease after wavepackets separate.

## Abstract

In space and astrophysical plasmas, turbulence is responsible for transferring energy from large scales driven by violent events or instabilities, to smaller scales where turbulent energy is ultimately converted into plasma heat by dissipative mechanisms. The nonlinear interaction between counterpropagating Alfven waves, denoted Alfven wave collisions, drives this turbulent energy cascade, as recognized by early work with incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations. Recent work employing analytical calculations and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of Alfven wave collisions in an idealized periodic initial state have demonstrated the key properties that strong Alfven wave collisions mediate effectively the transfer of energy to smaller perpendicular scales and self-consistently generate current sheets. For the more realistic case of the collision between two initially separated Alfven wavepackets, we use a nonlinear gyrokinetic simulation to show here that these key properties persist: strong Alfven wavepacket collisions indeed facilitate the perpendicular cascade of energy and give rise to current sheets. Furthermore, the evolution shows that nonlinear interactions occur only while the wavepackets overlap, followed by a clean separation of the wavepackets with straight uniform magnetic fields and the cessation of nonlinear evolution in between collisions, even in the gyrokinetic simulation presented here which resolves dispersive and kinetic effects beyond the reach of the MHD theory.