Nonlocality and the Critical Reynolds Numbers of the Minimum State Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence
ORAL
Abstract
Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) systems can be strongly nonlinear (turbulent) when their kinetic and magnetic Reynolds numbers are high, as is the case in many astrophysical and space plasma flows. Unfortunately these high Reynolds numbers are typically much greater than those currently attainable in numerical simulations of MHD turbulence. A natural question to ask is how can researchers be sure that their simulations have reproduced all of the most influential physics of the flows and magnetic fields? In this talk, a metric is defined to indicate whether the necessary physics of interest has been captured. It is found that current computing resources will typically not be sufficient to achieve this minimum state metric.
*This work was performed under the auspices of the Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC under contract No.\ DE-AC52-07NA27344 and with support from the University of Waikato Strategic Research Investment Fund.
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