Whistler Wave Turbulence in Solar Wind Plasma

Abstract

Whistler waves are present in solar wind plasma. These waves possess characteristic turbulent fluctuations that are characterized typically by the frequency and length scales that are respectively bigger than ion gyro frequency and smaller than ion gyro radius. The electron inertial length is an intrinsic length scale in whistler wave turbulence that distinguishably divides the high frequency solar wind turbulent spectra into scales smaller and bigger than the electron inertial length. We present nonlinear three dimensional, time dependent, fluid simulations of whistler wave turbulence to investigate their role in solar wind plasma. Our simulations find that the dispersive whistler modes evolve entirely differently in the two regimes. While the dispersive whistler wave effects are stronger in the large scale regime, they do not influence the spectral cascades which are describable by a Kolmogorov‐like k−7/3 spectrum. By contrast, the small scale turbulent fluctuations exhibit a Navier‐Stokes like evolution where characteristic turbulent eddies exhibit a typical k−5/3 hydrodynamic turbulent spectrum. By virtue of equipartition between the wave velocity and magnetic fields, we quantify the role of whistler waves in the solar wind plasma fluctuations.