Statistics of passive tracers in three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

Abstract

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is studied from the Lagrangian viewpoint by following fluid particle tracers in high resolution direct numerical simulations. Results regarding turbulent diffusion and dispersion as well as Lagrangian structure functions are presented. Whereas turbulent single-particle diffusion exhibits essentially the same behavior in Navier-Stokes and MHD turbulence, two-particle relative dispersion in the MHD case differs significantly from the Navier-Stokes behavior. This observation is linked to the local anisotropy of MHD turbulence which is clearly reflected by quantities measured in a Lagrangian frame of reference. In the MHD case the Lagrangian structure functions display a lower level of intermittency as compared to the Navier-Stokes case contrasting Eulerian results. This is not only true for short time increments [ H. Homann, R. Grauer, A. Busse, and W.-C. Müller, J. Plasma Phys. 73, 821 (2007) ] but also holds for increments up to the order of the integral time scale. The apparent discrepancy can be explained by the difference in the characteristic shapes of fluid particle trajectories in the vicinity of most singular dissipative structures

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