Alfvén wave collisions, the fundamental building block of plasma turbulence. II. Numerical solution

Abstract

This paper presents the numerical verification of an asymptotic analytical solution for the nonlinear interaction between counterpropagating Alfvén waves, the fundamental building block of astrophysical plasma turbulence. The analytical solution, derived in the weak turbulence limit using the equations of incompressible MHD, is compared to a nonlinear gyrokinetic simulation of an Alfvén wave collision. The agreement between these methods signifies that the incompressible solution satisfactorily describes the essential dynamics of the nonlinear energy transfer, even under the weakly collisional plasma conditions relevant to many astrophysical environments.