Energy partition between Alfv\'enic and compressive fluctuations in magnetorotational turbulence with near-azimuthal mean magnetic field

TL;DR

This study investigates how Alfvénic and compressive fluctuations in MRI-driven turbulence with a near-azimuthal magnetic field become energetically decoupled at small scales, affecting plasma heating processes in accretion disks.

Contribution

It demonstrates that in MRI turbulence with a near-azimuthal magnetic field, Alfvénic and compressive fluctuations decouple at small scales using a reduced MHD model including differential rotation effects.

Findings

Decoupling occurs at small scales where nonlinear transfer dominates linear coupling.

Energy flux of compressive fluctuations is nearly twice that of Alfvénic fluctuations at decoupling scales.

Results inform ion-to-electron heating ratios in hot accretion flows.

Abstract

The theory of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence predicts that Alfv\'enic and slow-mode-like compressive fluctuations are energetically decoupled at small scales in the inertial range. The partition of energy between these fluctuations determines the nature of dissipation, which, in many astrophysical systems, happens on scales where plasma is collisionless. However, when the magnetorotational instability (MRI) drives the turbulence, it is difficult to resolve numerically the scale at which both types of fluctuations start to be decoupled because the MRI energy injection occurs in a broad range of wavenumbers, and both types of fluctuations are usually expected to be coupled even at relatively small scales. In this study, we focus on collisional MRI turbulence threaded by a near-azimuthal mean magnetic field, which is naturally produced by the differential rotation of a disc. We show that, in such a case, the decoupling scales are reachable using a reduced MHD model that includes differential-rotation effects. In our reduced MHD model, the Alfv\'enic and compressive fluctuations are coupled only through the linear terms that are proportional to the angular velocity of the accretion disc. We numerically solve for the turbulence in this model and show that the Alfv\'enic and compressive fluctuations are decoupled at the small scales of our simulations as the nonlinear energy transfer dominates the linear coupling below the MRI-injection scale. In the decoupling scales, the energy flux of compressive fluctuations contained in the small scales is almost double that of Alfv\'enic fluctuations. Finally, we discuss the application of this result to prescriptions of ion-to-electron heating ratio in hot accretion flows.