Statistics of pressure fluctuations in turbulent kinetic plasmas

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this study, we explore the statistics of pressure fluctuations in kinetic collisionless turbulence. A 2.5D kinetic particle-in-cell simulation of decaying turbulence is used to investigate pressure balance via the evolution of thermal and magnetic pressure in a plasma with β of order unity. We also discuss the behaviour of thermal, magnetic, and total pressure structure functions and their corresponding wavenumber spectra. The total pressure spectrum exhibits a slope of −7/3 extending for about a decade in the ion-inertial range. In contrast, shallower −5/3 spectra are characteristic of the magnetic pressure and thermal pressure. The steeper total pressure spectrum is a consequence of cancellation caused by density-magnetic field magnitude anti-correlation. Further, we evaluate higher order total pressure structure functions in an effort to discuss intermittency and compare the power exponents with higher order structure functions of velocity and magnetic fluctuations. Finally, applications to astrophysical systems are also discussed.