Journal article
Energy partition between Alfvénic and compressive fluctuations in magnetorotational turbulence with near-azimuthal mean magnetic field
- Abstract:
- The theory of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence predicts that Alfvénic and slow-mode-like compressive fluctuations are energetically decoupled at small scales in the inertial range. The partition of energy between these fluctuations determines the nature of dissipation, which, in many astrophysical systems, happens on scales where plasma is collisionless. However, when the magnetorotational instability (MRI) drives the turbulence, it is difficult to resolve numerically the scale at which both types of fluctuations start to be decoupled because the MRI energy injection occurs in a broad range of wavenumbers, and both types of fluctuations are usually expected to be coupled even at relatively small scales. In this study, we focus on collisional MRI turbulence threaded by a near-azimuthal mean magnetic field, which is naturally produced by the differential rotation of a disc. We show that, in such a case, the decoupling scales are reachable using a reduced MHD model that includes differential-rotation effects. In our reduced MHD model, the Alfvénic and compressive fluctuations are coupled only through the linear terms that are proportional to the angular velocity of the accretion disc. We numerically solve for the turbulence in this model and show that the Alfvénic and compressive fluctuations are decoupled at the small scales of our simulations as the nonlinear energy transfer dominates the linear coupling below the MRI-injection scale. In the decoupling scales, the energy flux of compressive fluctuations contained in the small scales is almost double that of Alfvénic fluctuations. Finally, we discuss the application of this result to prescriptions of ion-to-electron heating ratio in hot accretion flows.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 2.0MB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.1017/S0022377822000460
Authors
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Journal:
- Journal of Plasma Physics More from this journal
- Volume:
- 88
- Issue:
- 3
- Article number:
- 905880311
- Publication date:
- 2022-06-09
- Acceptance date:
- 2022-05-25
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1469-7807
- ISSN:
-
0022-3778
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
1207372
- Local pid:
-
pubs:1207372
- Deposit date:
-
2022-05-25
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Kawazura et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2022
- Rights statement:
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record