Velocity-space cascade in magnetized plasmas: Numerical simulations

Abstract

Plasma turbulence is studied via direct numerical simulations in a two-dimensional spatial geometry. Using a hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell model, we investigate the possibility of a velocity-space cascade. A novel theory of space plasma turbulence has been recently proposed by Servidio et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 205101 (2017)], supported by a three-dimensional Hermite decomposition applied to spacecraft measurements, showing that velocity space fluctuations of the ion velocity distribution follow a broad-band, power-law Hermite spectrum P(m), where m is the Hermite index. We numerically explore these mechanisms in a more magnetized regime. We find that (1) the plasma reveals spectral anisotropy in velocity space, due to the presence of an external magnetic field (analogous to spatial anisotropy of fluid and plasma turbulence); (2) the distribution of energy follows the prediction P(m)∼m−2, proposed in the above theoretical-observational work; and (3) the velocity-space activity is intermittent in space, being enhanced close to coherent structures such as the reconnecting current sheets produced by turbulence. These results may be relevant to the nonlinear dynamics weakly collisional plasma in a wide variety of circumstances.