Imbalanced Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence: Numerics and Theory
ORAL
Abstract
Recent results from theory and numerical simulations suggest that magnetohodrodynamic turbulence develops regions of imbalanced cascades, even when no overall imbalance is imposed. Imbalanced magnetohydrodynamic turbulence is believed to be present in the solar wind, where magnetic and velocity fluctuations are dominated by Alfv\'en waves moving outward from the sun. We present results of high resolution numerical simulations of balanced and imbalanced turbulent cascades, obtain turbulent spectra, and propose an analytic explanation of the results.
*Work supported by the U.S. DOE under Grant DE-FG02-07ER54932, by the NSF Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and in part by the NSF under Grant PHY05-51164.
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