Long-living Equilibria in Kinetic Astrophysical Plasma Turbulence

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the existence of long-living, force-free vortex structures in kinetic plasma turbulence through high-resolution simulations, revealing their role in mediating turbulence and their potential relevance to astrophysical phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a new class of metastable equilibria in kinetic plasma turbulence modeled with a self-consistent kinetic approach, extending classical force-free solutions.

Findings

Long-living vortices form in kinetic plasma turbulence.

These vortices can be described by a modified Gold-Hoyle solution.

Turbulence dynamics involve vortex merging and formation of new equilibria.

Abstract

Turbulence in classical fluids is characterized by persistent structures that emerge from the chaotic landscape. We investigate the analogous process in fully kinetic plasma turbulence by using high-resolution, direct numerical simulations in two spatial dimensions. We observe the formation of long-living vortices with a profile typical of macroscopic, magnetically dominated force-free states. Inspired by the Harris pinch model for inhomogeneous equilibria, we describe these metastable solutions with a self-consistent kinetic model in a cylindrical coordinate system centered on a representative vortex, starting from an explicit form of the particle velocity distribution function. Such new equilibria can be simplified to a Gold-Hoyle solution of the modified force-free state. Turbulence is mediated by the long-living structures, accompanied by transients in which such vortices merge and form self-similarly new metastable equilibria. This process can be relevant to the comprehension of various astrophysical phenomena, going from the formation of plasmoids in the vicinity of massive compact objects to the emergence of coherent structures in the heliosphere.