Weakly compressible turbulence in local interstellar medium. Three-dimensional modeling using Large Eddy Simulation method

Using advantages of large eddy simulation method, nontrivial regime of compressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence of space plasma when initially supersonic fluctuations become weakly compressible is studied. Establishment of weakly compressible limit with Kolmogorov-Iike density fluctuations spectr...

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Veröffentlicht in:Interactions, Patterns, and Turbulence Patterns, and Turbulence, 2009-12, Vol.1242, p.197-204
Hauptverfasser: Chernyshov, Alexander A, Karelsky, Kirill V, Petrosyan, Arakel S
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Using advantages of large eddy simulation method, nontrivial regime of compressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence of space plasma when initially supersonic fluctuations become weakly compressible is studied. Establishment of weakly compressible limit with Kolmogorov-Iike density fluctuations spectrum is shown in present work. We use our computations results to study dynamics of the turbulent plasma beta and anisotropic properties of the magnetoplasma fluctuations in the local interstellar medium. An outstanding, as yet unexplained, observation is that density fluctuations in the local interstellar medium exhibit a Kolmogorov-like spectrum over an extraordinary range of scales with a spectral index close to -5/3. In spite of the compressibility and the presence of magnetic field in the local interstellar medium, density fluctuations nevertheless admit a Kolmogorov-like power law. Supersonic flows with high value of large-scale Mach numbers are characterized in interstellar medium, nevertheless, there are subsonic fluctuations of weakly compressible components of interstellar medium. These weakly compressible subsonic fluctuations are responsible for emergence of a Kolmogorov-type spectrum in interstellar turbulence which is observed from experimental data. It is shown that density fluctuations are a passive scalar in a velocity field in weakly compressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence and demonstrate Kolmogorov-like spectrum.
ISSN:0094-243X