Simulations of Field Line Random Walk in Noisy Slab Turbulence

Abstract

Magnetic field lines in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence are stochastic curves and, therefore, understanding their structure is a difficult problem of theoretical physics. One way to study the properties of such field lines is to perform simulations in which field line equations are solved numerically. In most previous articles studies have been performed in the context of the two-component turbulence model where one assumes a superposition of slab and two-dimensional modes. In the current paper we perform simulations for so-called noisy slab turbulence which is an example for three-dimensional turbulence with small Kubo numbers. We discuss in detail the challenges of the numerical magnetic field creation for this type of turbulence, perform the simulations, and compare our findings with analytical theory. It is demonstrated that a large number of wave modes is needed in order to obtain accurate results. Furthermore, we also show that analytical theories are very accurate for this type of turbulence model. The obtained results will also be useful for the analytical description of energetic particle transport in the considered turbulence model.