Local and global properties of energy transfer in models of plasma turbulence

TL;DR

This paper investigates the energy transfer mechanisms in plasma turbulence using numerical simulations across different models, revealing insights into local and global energy flux structures in weakly collisional space plasmas.

Contribution

It compares hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell, Hall-MHD, and Landau fluid models to analyze energy transfer properties in plasma turbulence, incorporating kinetic effects like Landau damping.

Findings

Energy flux structures vary across models.

Local energy transfer proxies reveal cascade details.

Kinetic effects influence energy dissipation at small scales.

Abstract

The nature of the turbulent energy transfer rate is studied using direct numerical simulations of weakly collisional space plasmas. This is done comparing results obtained from hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell simulations of colissionless plasmas, Hall-magnetohydrodynamics, and Landau fluid models reproducing low-frequency kinetic effects, such as the Landau damping. In this partially developed turbulent scenario, estimates of the local and global scaling properties of different energy channels are obtained using a proxy of the local energy transfer (LET). This approach provides information on the structure of energy fluxes, under the assumption that the turbulent cascade transfers most of the energy that is then dissipated at small scales by various kinetic processes in this kind of plasmas.