Energy cascade rate measured in a collisionless space plasma with MMS data and compressible Hall magnetohydrodynamic turbulence theory

TL;DR

This study measures the energy cascade rate in Earth's magnetosheath using MMS data and compressible Hall MHD theory, revealing how density fluctuations influence cascade dynamics at different scales.

Contribution

It provides the first complete estimation of the compressible energy cascade rate in space plasma at MHD and sub-ion scales using a new exact law and multi-spacecraft data.

Findings

Cascade rate matches incompressible estimates at MHD scales for small density fluctuations.

Cascade rate exceeds incompressible estimates at sub-ion scales, especially with larger density fluctuations.

Compressible Hall flux dominates the cascade process at sub-ion scales.

Abstract

The first complete estimation of the compressible energy cascade rate $|\varepsilon_\text{C}|$ at magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and sub-ion scales is obtained in the Earth's magnetosheath using Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) spacecraft data and an exact law derived recently for {\it compressible} Hall MHD turbulence. A multi-spacecraft technique is used to compute the velocity and magnetic gradients, and then all the correlation functions involved in the exact relation. It is shown that when the density fluctuations are relatively small, $|\varepsilon_\text{C}|$ identifies well with its incompressible analogue $|\varepsilon_\text{I}|$ at MHD scales but becomes much larger than $|\varepsilon_\text{I}|$ at sub-ion scales. For larger density fluctuations, $|\varepsilon_\text{C}|$ is larger than $|\varepsilon_\text{I}|$ at every scale with a value significantly higher than for smaller density fluctuations. Our study reveals also that for both small and large density fluctuations, the non-flux terms remain always negligible with respect to the flux terms and that the major contribution to $|\varepsilon_\text{C}|$ at sub-ion scales comes from the compressible Hall flux.