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Three-dimensional simulations of sheared current sheets: transition to turbulence?

Three-dimensional simulations of sheared current sheets: transition to turbulence?
Three-dimensional simulations of sheared current sheets: transition to turbulence?
Systems of multiple current sheets arise in various situations in natural plasmas, such as at the heliospheric current sheet in the solar wind and in the outer heliosphere in the heliosheath. Previous three-dimensional simulations have shown that such systems can develop turbulent-like fluctuations resulting from a forward and inverse cascade in wave vector space. We present a study of the transition to turbulence of such multiple current sheet systems, including the effects of adding a magnetic guide field and velocity shears across the current sheets. Three-dimensional hybrid simulations are performed of systems with eight narrow current sheets in a triply periodic geometry. We carry out a number of different analyses of the evolution of the fluctuations as the initially highly ordered state relaxes to one which resembles turbulence. Despite the evidence of a forward and inverse cascade in the fluctuation power spectra, we find that none of the simulated cases have evidence of intermittency after the initial period of fast reconnection associated with the ion tearing instability at the current sheets. Cancellation analysis confirms that the simulations have not evolved to a state which can be identified as fully developed turbulence. The addition of velocity shears across the current sheets slows the evolution in the properties of the fluctuations, but by the end of the simulation they are broadly similar. However, if the simulation is constrained to be two-dimensional, differences are found, indicating that fully three-dimensional simulations are important when studying the evolution of an ordered equilibrium towards a turbulent-like state.
0022-3778
Gingell, Imogen
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Sorriso-valvo, Luca
f127af27-d144-4c0f-9494-f640d370d4ef
Burgess, David
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De Vita, Gaetano
aa06edc8-fc48-4638-aad5-296cfc1afb11
Matteini, Lorenzo
401e1314-bd82-4084-b9ba-15889e532074
Gingell, Imogen
ba7b8113-3833-40d8-a879-aab3f987455d
Sorriso-valvo, Luca
f127af27-d144-4c0f-9494-f640d370d4ef
Burgess, David
9d9bae4d-ccf5-4ead-bebb-67177cd8603e
De Vita, Gaetano
aa06edc8-fc48-4638-aad5-296cfc1afb11
Matteini, Lorenzo
401e1314-bd82-4084-b9ba-15889e532074

Gingell, Imogen, Sorriso-valvo, Luca, Burgess, David, De Vita, Gaetano and Matteini, Lorenzo (2017) Three-dimensional simulations of sheared current sheets: transition to turbulence? Journal of Plasma Physics, 83 (1). (doi:10.1017/S0022377817000058).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Systems of multiple current sheets arise in various situations in natural plasmas, such as at the heliospheric current sheet in the solar wind and in the outer heliosphere in the heliosheath. Previous three-dimensional simulations have shown that such systems can develop turbulent-like fluctuations resulting from a forward and inverse cascade in wave vector space. We present a study of the transition to turbulence of such multiple current sheet systems, including the effects of adding a magnetic guide field and velocity shears across the current sheets. Three-dimensional hybrid simulations are performed of systems with eight narrow current sheets in a triply periodic geometry. We carry out a number of different analyses of the evolution of the fluctuations as the initially highly ordered state relaxes to one which resembles turbulence. Despite the evidence of a forward and inverse cascade in the fluctuation power spectra, we find that none of the simulated cases have evidence of intermittency after the initial period of fast reconnection associated with the ion tearing instability at the current sheets. Cancellation analysis confirms that the simulations have not evolved to a state which can be identified as fully developed turbulence. The addition of velocity shears across the current sheets slows the evolution in the properties of the fluctuations, but by the end of the simulation they are broadly similar. However, if the simulation is constrained to be two-dimensional, differences are found, indicating that fully three-dimensional simulations are important when studying the evolution of an ordered equilibrium towards a turbulent-like state.

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Three-dimensional simulations of sheared current sheets: transition to turbulence? - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 16 January 2017
Published date: 1 February 2017

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 438716
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/438716
ISSN: 0022-3778
PURE UUID: f68c538b-7c03-41fa-a188-d149f47ae350
ORCID for Imogen Gingell: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2218-1909

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Date deposited: 23 Mar 2020 17:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:59

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Contributors

Author: Imogen Gingell ORCID iD
Author: Luca Sorriso-valvo
Author: David Burgess
Author: Gaetano De Vita
Author: Lorenzo Matteini

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