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Electromotive force in strongly compressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2018

Nobumitsu Yokoi*
Affiliation:
Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
*
†Email address for correspondence: nobyokoi@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
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Abstract

Fully compressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is investigated in the framework of the multiple-scale direct-interaction approximation. With the aid of the propagators (correlation and Green’s functions), fluctuating fields are solved, and turbulent correlations are estimated in highly compressible turbulence. We focus on the expression of the turbulent electromotive force (EMF). Obliqueness between the mean magnetic field and the mean-density gradient, the mean internal density gradient and the non-equilibrium mean velocity contributes to the EMF in the presence of the density variance, which is ubiquitous in turbulence in strongly variable density flows such as the shock-front region. This density-variance effect is expected to locally enhance the turbulence intensity across the shock front, leading to a fast reconnection.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018 
Figure 0

Figure 1. Turbulent velocity variation $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }$ tends to be parallel (anti-parallel) to the mean-density gradient $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}$, if the local turbulent dilatation $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }$ is positive (negative).

Figure 1

Figure 2. Magnetoacoustic waves. The turbulent magnetic field variation $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}\boldsymbol{b}^{\prime }$ is parallel to the mean magnetic field $\boldsymbol{B}$ in the case of local turbulent contraction $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\unicode[STIX]{x1D743}_{\bot }<0$. Here $\unicode[STIX]{x1D743}_{\bot }$ is the displacement of plasma perpendicular to the mean magnetic field.

Figure 2

Figure 3. Turbulent electromotive force due to the misalignment of the mean magnetic field from the gradient of mean density. Cases for dilatation (a) and contraction (b).

Figure 3

Figure 4. Density-variance effect in a reconnection slow shock.