Turbulence In Magnetized Plasma Research Articles

Nonlinear susceptibilities for weakly turbulent magnetized plasma: Electromagnetic formalism

This is a companion paper to the previous work [P. H. Yoon, Phys. Plasmas 31, 032309 (2024)] in which the nonlinear susceptibilities of weakly turbulent magnetized plasma are derived under a simplifying assumption of electrostatic interaction. The present paper extends the analysis to a general situation of electromagnetic interaction. The main novelty of the previous and present papers is that by employing the Bessel function addition theorem, the mathematical definitions for the susceptibilities are substantially simplified, a procedure that has not been discussed in the existing literature. In the present paper, a full set of Maxwell’s equations are considered in conjunction with the nonlinear Vlasov equation, which is solved by a perturbative method. The result is a fully general nonlinear susceptibility, given in tensorial form, which is applicable for weakly turbulent magnetized plasmas.

Nonlinear susceptibilities for weakly turbulent magnetized plasma: Electrostatic approximation

The plasma weak turbulence theory is a perturbative nonlinear theory, which has been proven to be quite valid in a number of applications. However, the standard weak turbulence theory found in the literature is fully developed for highly idealized unmagnetized plasmas. As many plasmas found in nature and laboratory are immersed in a background static magnetic field, it is necessary to extend the existing discussions to include the effects of ambient magnetic field. Such a task is quite formidable, however, which has prevented fundamental and significant progresses in the subject matter. The central difficulty lies in the formulation of the complete nonlinear response functions for magnetized plasmas. The present paper derives the nonlinear susceptibilities for weakly turbulent magnetized plasmas up to the third order nonlinearity, but in doing so, a substantial reduction in mathematical complexity is achieved by the use of Bessel function addition theorem (or sum rule). The present paper also constructs the weak turbulence wave kinetic equation in a formal sense. For the sake of simplicity, however, the present paper assumes the electrostatic interaction among plasma particles. Fully electromagnetic generalization is a subject of a subsequent paper.

Investigation of a Magnetic Reconnection Event with Extraordinarily High Particle Energization in Magnetotail Turbulence

Magnetic reconnection and plasma turbulence are ubiquitous and key processes in the Universe. These two processes are suggested to be intrinsically related: magnetic reconnection can develop turbulence, and, in turn, turbulence can influence or excite magnetic reconnection. In this study, we report a rare and unique electron diffusion region (EDR) observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission in the Earth’s magnetotail with significantly enhanced energetic particle fluxes. The EDR is in a region of strong turbulence within which the plasma density is dramatically depleted. We present three salient features. (1) Despite the turbulence, the EDR behaves nearly the same as that in 2D quasi-planar reconnection; the observations suggest that magnetic reconnection continues for several minutes. (2) The observed reconnection electric field and inferred energy transport are exceptionally large. However, the aspect ratio of the EDR (one definition of reconnection rate) is fairly typical. Instead, extraordinarily large-amplitude Hall electric fields appear to enable the strong energy transport. (3) We hypothesize that the high-energy transport rate, density depletion, and the strong particle acceleration are related to a near-runaway effect, which is due to the combination of low-plasma-density inflow (from lobes) and possible positive feedback between turbulence and reconnection. The detailed study on this EDR gives insight into the interplay between reconnection and turbulence, and the possible near-runaway effect, which may play an important role in other particle acceleration in astrophysical plasma.

A luminous fast radio burst that probes the Universe at redshift 1.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration pulses of radio emission originating from extragalactic distances. Radio dispersion is imparted on each burst by intervening plasma, mostly located in the intergalactic medium. In this work, we observe the burst FRB20220610A and localize it to a morphologically complex host galaxy system at redshift 1.016 ± 0.002. The burst redshift and dispersion measure are consistent with passage through a substantial column of plasma in the intergalactic medium and extend the relationship between those quantities measured at lower redshift. The burst shows evidence for passage through additional turbulent magnetized plasma, potentially associated with the host galaxy. We use the burst energy of 2 × 1042 erg to revise the empirical maximum energy of an FRB.

TIFF: Gyrofluid turbulence in full-f and full-k

A model and code (“TIFF”) for isothermal gyrofluid computation of quasi-two-dimensional interchange and drift wave turbulence in magnetized plasmas with arbitrary fluctuation amplitudes (“full-f”) and arbitrary polarization wavelengths (“full-k”) is introduced. The model reduces to the paradigmatic Hasegawa-Wakatani model in the limits of small turbulence amplitudes (“delta-f”), cold ions (without finite Larmor radius effects), and homogeneous magnetic field. Several solvers are compared for the generalized Poisson problem, that is intrinsic to the full-f gyrofluid (and gyrokinetic) polarization equation, and a novel implementation based on a dynamically corrected Fourier method is proposed. The code serves as a reference case for further development of three-dimensional full-f full-k models and solvers, and for fundamental exploration of large amplitude turbulence in the edge of magnetized plasmas.

Extended Magnetic Reconnection in Kinetic Plasma Turbulence.

Magnetic reconnection and plasma turbulence are ubiquitous processes important for laboratory, space, and astrophysical plasmas. Reconnection has been suggested to play an important role in the energetics and dynamics of turbulence by observations, simulations, and theory for two decades. The fundamental properties of reconnection at kinetic scales, essential to understanding the general problem of reconnection in magnetized turbulence, remain largely unknown at present. Here, we present an application of the magnetic flux transport method that can accurately identify reconnection in turbulence to a three-dimensional simulation. Contrary to ideas that reconnection in turbulence would be patchy and unpredictable, highly extended reconnection X lines, on the same order of magnitude as the system size, form at kinetic scales. Extended X lines develop through bidirectional reconnection spreading. They satisfy critical balance characteristicof turbulence, whichpredicts the X-line extent at a given scale. These results present a picture of fundamentally extended reconnection in kinetic-scale turbulence.

Mechanism of vorticity amplification by elastic waves in a viscoelastic channel flow

Inertia-less viscoelastic channel flow displays a supercritical nonnormal mode elastic instability due to finite-size perturbations despite its linear stability. The nonnormal mode instability is determined mainly by a direct transition from laminar to chaotic flow, in contrast to normal mode bifurcation leading to a single fastest-growing mode. At higher velocities, transitions to elastic turbulence and further drag reduction flow regimes occur accompanied by elastic waves in three flow regimes. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that the elastic waves play a key role in amplifying wall-normal vorticity fluctuations by pumping energy, withdrawn from the mean flow, into wall-normal fluctuating vortices. Indeed, the flow resistance and rotational part of the wall-normal vorticity fluctuations depend linearly on the elastic wave energy in three chaotic flow regimes. The higher (lower) the elastic wave intensity, the larger (smaller) the flow resistance and rotational vorticity fluctuations. This mechanism was suggested earlier to explain elastically driven Kelvin-Helmholtz-like instability in viscoelastic channel flow. The suggested physical mechanism of vorticity amplification by the elastic waves above the elastic instability onset recalls the Landau damping in magnetized relativistic plasma. The latter occurs due to the resonant interaction of electromagnetic waves with fast electrons in the relativistic plasma when the electron velocity approaches light speed. Moreover, the suggested mechanism could be generally relevant to flows exhibiting both transverse waves and vortices, such as Alfven waves interacting with vortices in turbulent magnetized plasma, and Tollmien-Schlichting waves amplifying vorticity in both Newtonian and elasto-inertial fluids in shear flows.

Formation and evolution of coherent structures in 3D strongly turbulent magnetized plasmas

We review the current literature on the formation of coherent structures (CoSs) in strongly turbulent 3D magnetized plasmas. CoSs [Current Sheets (CS), magnetic filaments, large amplitude magnetic disturbances, vortices, and shocklets] appear intermittently inside a turbulent plasma and are collectively the locus of magnetic energy transfer (dissipation) into particle kinetic energy, leading to heating and/or acceleration of the latter. CoSs and especially CSs are also evolving and fragmenting, becoming locally the source of new clusters of CoSs. Strong turbulence can be generated by the nonlinear coupling of large amplitude unstable plasma modes, by the explosive reorganization of large-scale magnetic fields, or by the fragmentation of CoSs. A small fraction of CSs inside a strongly turbulent plasma will end up reconnecting. Magnetic Reconnection (MR) is one of the potential forms of energy dissipation of a turbulent plasma. Analyzing the evolution of CSs and MR in isolation from the surrounding CoSs and plasma flows may be convenient for 2D numerical studies, but it is far from a realistic modeling of 3D astrophysical, space, and laboratory environments, where strong turbulence can be exited, such as in the solar wind, the solar atmosphere, solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections, large-scale space and astrophysical shocks, the magnetosheath, the magnetotail, astrophysical jets, and Edge Localized Modes in confined laboratory plasmas (tokamaks).

Evidence of entropy cascade in collisionless magnetized plasma turbulence

The turbulence of collisionless magnetized plasmas, as observed in space, astrophysical, and magnetically confined fusion plasmas, has attracted considerable interest for a long-time. The entropy cascade in collisionless magnetized plasmas is a theoretically proposed dynamics comparable to the Kolmogorov energy cascade in fluid turbulence. Here, we present evidence of an entropy cascade in laboratory plasmas by direct visualization of the entropy distribution in the phase space of turbulence in laboratory experiments. This measurement confirms the scaling laws predicted by the gyrokinetic theory with the dual self-similarity hypothesis, which reflects the interplay between the position and velocity of ions by perpendicular nonlinear phase mixing. This verification contributes to our understanding of turbulent heating in the solar corona, accretion disks, and magnetically confined fusion plasmas.

Pressure–strain interaction. II. Decomposition in magnetic field-aligned coordinates

In weakly collisional and collisionless magnetized plasmas, the pressure–strain interaction describes the rate of conversion between bulk flow and thermal energy density. In this study, we derive an analytical expression for the pressure–strain interaction in a coordinate system with an axis aligned with the local magnetic field. The result is eight groups of terms corresponding to different physical mechanisms that can contribute to the pressure–strain interaction. We provide a physical description of each term. The results are immediately of interest to weakly collisional and collisionless magnetized plasmas and the fundamental processes that happen therein, including magnetic reconnection, magnetized plasma turbulence, and collisionless shocks. The terms in the field-aligned coordinate decomposition are likely accessible to measurement with satellite observations.

Pressure–strain interaction. III. Particle-in-cell simulations of magnetic reconnection

How energy is converted into thermal energy in weakly collisional and collisionless plasma processes, such as magnetic reconnection and plasma turbulence, has recently been the subject of intense scrutiny. The pressure–strain interaction has emerged as an important piece, as it describes the rate of conversion between bulk flow and thermal energy density. In two companion studies, we presented an alternate decomposition of the pressure–strain interaction to isolate the effects of converging/diverging flow and flow shear instead of compressible and incompressible flow, and we derived the pressure–strain interaction in magnetic field-aligned coordinates. Here, we use these results to study pressure–strain interaction during two-dimensional anti-parallel magnetic reconnection. We perform particle-in-cell simulations and plot the decompositions in both Cartesian and magnetic field-aligned coordinates. We identify the mechanisms contributing to positive and negative pressure–strain interaction during reconnection. This study provides a roadmap for interpreting numerical and observational data of the pressure–strain interaction, which should be important for studies of reconnection, turbulence, and collisionless shocks.

Probability density of irradiance for electromagnetic waves propagating through turbulent magnetized plasma

SummaryNumerous physical mediums can be modelled as turbulent magnetized plasma, for example, the solar corona, and the ionosphere. Scintillation effects on the intensity of electromagnetic beam wave propagating through magnetized plasma necessitate the introduction of a statistical distribution valid over a large range of scintillation conditions, and incorporating the plasma physical properties. Under some simplifying assumptions, such a theoretical model can be derived based on the Rytov solution, the external magnetic field variation, and the space permeating plasma electron density variation. The resultant wave intensity distribution is compared with the Lognormal, Rician, and the Nakagami distributions for different scintillations conditions. The work presented in this paper is applicable to the analysis and design of optical wireless communication links through the ionosphere and deep space plasma.

Interface transport barriers in magnetized plasmas

We address the formation of Interface Transport Barriers using a generic turbulent transport model, reduced to 2D, and used to investigate interchange turbulence in magnetized plasmas. The generation of a transport barrier at the edge-scrape off layer (SOL) plasma interface is governed by a zonation regime in the edge region with closed-field lines. The barrier is triggered by a gap in the turbulent spectrum between zero, the zonal flow wave vector, and the wave vector of the spectrum maximum. This gap is controlled by the energy injection wave vector of the interchange instability and the Rhine scale that bounds the inverse cascade. Increasing the magnitude of the turbulence drive at a given gap reinforces the transport barrier. In the interface transport barrier regime, edge relaxation bursts of turbulence regenerate the zonal flows that are eroded by damping processes such as collisions. The duration of the quiescent phase between the quasi-periodic relaxation events is then governed by the ion collision frequency. Such an interface transport barrier can play the role of a seed barrier prior to a full bifurcation to improved confinement.

Measurement of the Taylor scale in a magnetized turbulent laboratory plasma wind-tunnel

The fluid Taylor scale is measured in the Bryn Mawr Experiment (BMX) of the Bryn Mawr Plasma Laboratory and examined as a potential dissipation scale of magnetic turbulence within the plasma. We present the first laboratory measurements of the Taylor scale of a turbulent magnetized plasma through multi-point correlations of broadband magnetic fluctuations. From spatial and temporal correlations, respectively, the measured Taylor scales are 2±1 and 3±1 cm. These measurements are on the same order of magnitude as estimated ion dissipation scales within the BMX plasma with ion inertial scales between 1 and 10 cm and ion gyroscales between 0.1 and 1.0 cm. From these measurements, a magnetic Reynolds number can be computed. Since Taylor scale values are determined using multi-point correlations and a Richardson extrapolation technique, an estimate of the magnetic Reynolds number can be found without the added complication of specifying a model of microscopic diffusivity, a parameter often difficult to obtain experimentally.

Temporal Spectrum of a Scattered Electromagnetic Waves in the Conductive Collision Turbulent Magnetized Plasma

Using WKB method the peculiarities of the temporal spectrum of an ordinary and extraordinary electromagnetic wave scattered in a weakly randomly inhomogeneous three-dimensional nonstationary and conductive magnetized plasma are investigated. On the basis of the stochastic differential transport equation for the frequency fluctuation the broadening and the displacement of the temporal spectrum for both waves are obtained for the polar terrestrial ionosphere. These statistical characteristics contains anisotropic parameters: velocity of a plasma stream, conductivities of the ionosphere, elongated electron density irregularities are characterized by the anisotropy factor and inclination angle with respect to the geomagnetic lines of forces. The analysis of the power spectrum of the waves as a function of the propagation distance and the nondimensional frequency parameter containing the carrier frequency and characteristic temporal scale of electron density fluctuations are carried out. Analytical and numerical calculations have shown that the terrestrial conductivity and anisotropy factors exert a substantial influence on evaluation of the temporal spectrum than the inclination angle. It was found that the wave spectrum increases initially as the square root of the propagation distance, but at large distances it approaches a limiting value. Statistical moments of a scattered ordinary and extraordinary waves do not depend on an absorption sign and valid for both absorptive and active media.

Role of Magnetic Fields in Ram Pressure Stripped Galaxies

Ram-pressure stripping is a crucial evolutionary driver for cluster galaxies and jellyfish galaxies characterized by very extended tails of stripped gas, and they are the most striking examples of it in action. Recently, those extended tails are found to show ongoing star formation, raising the question of how the stripped, cold gas can survive long enough to form new stars outside the stellar disk. In this study, we summarize the most recent results achieved within the GASP collaboration to provide a holistic explanation for this phenomenon. We focus on two textbook examples of jellyfish galaxies, JO206 and JW100, for which, via multi-wavelength observations from radio to X-ray and numerical simulations, we have explored the different gas phases (neutral, molecular, diffuse-ionized, and hot). Based on additional multi-phase gas studies, we now propose a scenario of stripped tail evolution including all phases that are driven by a magnetic draping sheath, where the intracluster turbulent magnetized plasma condenses onto the galaxy disk and tail and produces a magnetized interface that protects the stripped galaxy tail gas from evaporation. In such a scenario, the accreted environmental plasma can cool down and eventually join the tail gas, hence providing additional gas to form stars. The implications of our findings can shed light on the more general scenario of draping, condensation, and cooling of hot gas surrounding cold clouds that is fundamental in many astrophysical phenomena.

High-energy Neutrinos from Magnetized Coronae of Active Galactic Nuclei and Prospects for Identification of Seyfert Galaxies and Quasars in Neutrino Telescopes

Abstract Particles may be accelerated in magnetized coronae via magnetic reconnections and/or plasma turbulence, leading to high-energy neutrinos and soft γ-rays. We evaluate the detectability of neutrinos from nearby bright Seyfert galaxies identified by X-ray measurements. In the disk-corona model, we find that NGC 1068 is the most promising Seyfert galaxy in the Northern sky, where IceCube is the most sensitive, and show prospects for the identification of aggregated neutrino signals from Seyfert galaxies bright in X-rays. Moreover, we demonstrate that nearby Seyfert galaxies are promising targets for the next generation of neutrino telescopes such as KM3NeT and IceCube-Gen2. For KM3NeT, Cen A can be the most promising source in the Southern sky if a significant fraction of the observed X-rays come from the corona, and it could be identified in few years of KM3NeT operation. Our results reinforce the idea that hidden cores of supermassive black holes are the dominant sources of the high-energy neutrino emission and underlines the necessity of better sensitivity to medium-energy ranges in future neutrino detectors for identifying the origin of high-energy cosmic neutrinos.

Interactions of drift wave turbulence with streamer flows in wave-kinetic formalism

Interaction between drift wave turbulence and streamer flow in magnetized plasmas is investigated in the framework of wave-kinetic theory. By performing a wave-kinetic simulation of turbulence coupling with the streamer flow, the role of the phase-space dynamics of turbulence is clarified. Here, the phase-space consists of the real space and wavenumber space. As a consequence of the phase-space dynamics, the turbulence is trapped in the flow and propagates with the streamer. Because of the trapping, the asymmetry of the turbulence intensity with respect to the sign of the flow curvature appears. The trajectories of the turbulence wave-packet, which are the characteristic curves of the wave-kinetic solution, can be categorized by the trapping, passing, and scattering. Therefore, the obtained phase-space structure of the turbulence can be understood by their trajectories. The propagation direction and speed are found to be governed by the turbulence spectrum. The obtained characteristics can be explained by the theoretical analysis.

Predicting the Dimits shift through reduced mode tertiary instability analysis in a strongly driven gyrokinetic fluid limit

The tertiary instability is believed to be important for governing magnetised plasma turbulence under conditions of strong zonal flow generation, near marginal stability. In this work, we investigate its role for a collisionless strongly driven fluid model, self-consistently derived as a limit of gyrokinetics. It is found that a region of absolute stability above the linear threshold exists, beyond which significant nonlinear transport rapidly develops. Characteristically, this range exhibits a complex pattern of transient zonal evolution before a stable profile can arise. Nevertheless, the Dimits transition itself is found to coincide with a tertiary instability threshold, so long as linear effects are included. Through a simple and readily extendable procedure, tracing its origin to St-Onge (J. Plasma Phys., vol. 83, issue 05, 2017, 905830504), the stabilising effect of the typical zonal profile can be approximated, and the accompanying reduced mode estimate is found to be in good agreement with nonlinear simulations.

Uncovering turbulent plasma dynamics via deep learning from partial observations.

One of the most intensely studied aspects of magnetic confinement fusion is edge plasma turbulence which is critical to reactor performance and operation. Drift-reduced Braginskii two-fluid theory has for decades been widely applied to model boundary plasmas with varying success. Towards better understanding edge turbulence in both theory and experiment, we demonstrate that a physics-informed deep learning framework constrained by partial differential equations can accurately learn turbulent fields consistent with the two-fluid theory from partial observations of electron pressure which is not otherwise possible using conventional equilibrium models. This technique presents a paradigm for the advanced design of plasma diagnostics and validation of magnetized plasma turbulence theories in challenging thermonuclear environments.