Numerical simulation of anomalous plasma transport in the presence of magnetic turbulence

Abstract

The structure of plasma in the interplanetary space is briefly presented, and the problems related to the variability of solar activity are discussed. The features of magnetic turbulence in the solar wind are also described. Magnetic field fluctuations are one of the causes of enhanced transport both in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. To a first approximation, the plasma particles follow the magnetic field lines, whose equations form a non-linear one and a half degrees of freedom system. Unless the fluctuation level is very low, numerical simulations are needed to study such a system. We review three-dimensional numerical simulations of field line transport in anisotropic magnetic turbulence. Several transport regimes are found: for low Kubo number, anomalous transport is obtained, featuring both subdiffusion, corresponding to trapping in cantori structures, and superdiffusion, corresponding to Levy flights in the stochastic layer. Increasing the Kubo number, and hence stochasticity, quasilinear, intermediate, and percolative regimes are found, in the order. An expression of the diffusion coefficient valid for generalized anisotropy is presented.