Inertial-Range Suppression and Ponderomotive Density Cavitation in Broadband Sub-Alfv\'{e}nic Turbulence under Plasma Sheet Boundary Layer Conditions

TL;DR

This study uses simulations to explore how broadband kinetic Alfvén wave turbulence in plasma sheet boundary layers leads to density cavitation and inertial-range suppression, highlighting the role of moderate Reynolds numbers.

Contribution

It demonstrates that broadband KAW turbulence self-organizes into coherent density structures and shows inertial-range suppression primarily due to moderate-Reynolds-number effects, not wave physics alone.

Findings

Density cavitation and filamentary structures form rapidly in turbulence.

Magnetic energy spectra show inertial-range suppression without extended cascades.

Simulation results align with observational constraints for plasma sheet boundary layers.

Abstract

Kinetic Alfv\'{e}n waves (KAWs) are among the most pervasive electromagnetic fluctuations in magnetized astrophysical plasmas, from Earth's magnetosphere to galaxy clusters. Their ponderomotive coupling to compressive density fluctuations is poorly understood in the broadband turbulent regime. We present two-dimensional pseudospectral simulations of the modified nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger--magnetosonic (MNLS--MS) system governing KAW envelopes, initialized with a broadband power-law spectrum ($|\psi(\mathbf{k})|^2\propto k^{-5/6}$) spanning many interacting modes, at $\beta \sim 0.1$--$0.3$ representative of plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL) conditions. A fourth-order Runge--Kutta scheme on a $256\times 256$ grid integrates the system to $t = 40$ (normalized), with total energy conserved to within $0.085\%$ in the undamped run; a damped run with dissipation loses $\sim 4\%$ of the magnetic energy over the same interval. The nonlinearity parameter $\chi_\mathrm{NL} \approx 0.25$ confirms broadband sub-Alfv\'{e}nic turbulence throughout. Magnetic field intensity and plasma density develop spatially intermittent, filamentary structures within the first few wave periods, consistent with ponderomotive density cavitation and plasma expulsion from wave-intense regions. The magnetic energy spectra show inertial-range suppression, with a rapid transition from injection ($k < 0.3$) to dissipation without an extended power-law cascade, in agreement with the moderate magnetic Reynolds number ($\mathrm{R_m} \sim 250$--$370$) of the simulation and the observationally constrained range for PSBL turbulence. These results provide numerical evidence that broadband KAW turbulence self-organizes into coherent density structures at kinetic scales, and that the spectral character of such turbulence is governed primarily by moderate-Reynolds-number constraints rather than by the wave physics alone.