Turbulence-Driven Ion Beams in the Magnetospheric Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability.

The description of the local turbulent energy transfer and the high-resolution ion distributions measured by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission together provide a formidable tool to explore the cross-scale connection between the fluid-scale energy cascade and plasma processes at subion scales. When the small-scale energy transfer is dominated by Alfvénic, correlated velocity, and magnetic field fluctuations, beams of accelerated particles are more likely observed. Here, for the first time, we report observations suggesting the nonlinear wave-particle interaction as one possible mechanism for the energy dissipation in space plasmas.

Coherent Structure Formation through nonlinear interactions in 2D Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence.

Using high resolution 2D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations we analyze the formation of coherent structures induced by nonlinear interactions in turbulent flows. The properties of these coherent structures, which at the smallest scales are identified through a spatial intermittent behavior, turn out to be guided by the conservation of ideal quadratic (rugged) invariants of the 2D incompressible MHD equations. Different spatial regions can be identified, where the correlations predicted using the variational principles associated to the rugged invariants are locally displayed. These local correlated structures are produced rapidly, as soon as the turbulence is fully developed. It is worth speculating that the small scale structures under our investigation could give rise to singular weak solutions when letting the dissipative coefficients go to zero. In this case their properties could furnish a key to understand which mathematical conditions characterize singularity emergency in weak solutions of the MHD ideal case.

Collisional Relaxation of Fine Velocity Structures in Plasmas.

The existence of several characteristic times during the collisional relaxation of fine velocity structures is investigated by means of Eulerian numerical simulations of a spatially homogeneous force-free weakly collisional plasma. The effect of smoothing out velocity gradients on the evolution of global quantities, such as temperature and entropy, is discussed, suggesting that plasma collisionality can locally increase due to velocity space deformations of the particle velocity distribution function. These results support the idea that high-resolution measurements of the particle velocity distribution function are crucial for an accurate description of weakly collisional systems, such as the solar wind, in order to answer relevant scientific questions, related, for example, to particle heating and energization.

Off-normal and failure condition analysis of the MITICA negative-ion accelerator.

The negative-ion accelerator for the MITICA neutral beam injector has been designed and optimized in order to reduce the thermo-mechanical stresses in all components below limits compatible with the required fatigue life. However, deviation from the expected beam performances can be caused by "off-normal" operating conditions of the accelerator. The purpose of the present work is to identify and analyse all the "off-normal" operating conditions, which could possibly become critical in terms of thermo-mechanical stresses or of degradation of the optical performances of the beam.

New ion-wave path in the energy cascade.

We present the results of kinetic numerical simulations that demonstrate the existence of a novel branch of electrostatic nonlinear waves driven by particle trapping processes. These waves have an acoustic-type dispersion with phase speed comparable to the ion thermal speed and would thus be heavily Landau damped in the linear regime. At variance with the ion-acoustic waves, this novel electrostatic branch can exist at a small but finite amplitude even for low values of the electron to ion temperature ratio. Our results provide a new interpretation of observations in space plasmas, where a significant level of electrostatic activity is observed in the high frequency region of the solar-wind turbulent spectra.

Electrostatic short-scale termination of solar-wind turbulence.

Recent hybrid Vlasov simulations [F. Valentini, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 025006 (2008)10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.025006] have shown that the short-scale termination of solar-wind turbulence is characterized by the occurrence of longitudinal electrostatic fluctuations. Beside the ion-acoustic branch, in agreement with solar-wind observations, a novel branch of acoustic-like waves, with phase velocity close to the ion thermal speed, has been recovered in the simulations. In this Letter, we show that these waves turn out to be Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal-like solutions of the hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell equations, driven by kinetic effects of resonant particle trapping. We also discuss the development of the solar-wind turbulent spectra across the ion inertial length and especially stress the fact that turbulence privileges acoustic paths to develop towards short wavelengths.

Model for intermittency of energy dissipation in turbulent flows.

Modeling the intermittent behavior of turbulent energy dissipation processes in both space and time is often a relevant problem when dealing with phenomena occurring in high-Reynolds-number flows, especially in astrophysical and space fluids. In this paper, a dynamical model is proposed to describe the intermittency of the energy dissipation rate in a turbulent system. This is done by using a shell model to simulate the time evolution of the turbulent cascade and introducing some heuristic rules, partly inspired by the well-known p model, to construct a spatial structure of the energy dissipation rate. In order to validate the model and to study its spatial intermittency properties, a series of numerical simulations have been performed. These show that the level of spatial intermittency of the system can be simply tuned by varying a single parameter of the model and that scaling laws in agreement with those obtained from experiments on fully turbulent hydrodynamic flows can be recovered. It is finally suggested that the model could represent a useful tool to simulate the intermittent structure of turbulent energy dissipation in those high-Reynolds-number astrophysical fluids where impulsive energy release processes can be associated with the dynamics of the turbulent cascade.

A modified fermi model for wave-particle interactions in plasmas.

Wave-particle interactions in plasmas are investigated through a nonlinear map that describes elastic collisions between an ensemble of particles and two barriers. The amplitude of the barriers, proportional to the energy of the wave, can increase or decrease due to the sequence of stochastic collisions. After an initial exponential decrease, the nonlinear strong trapping regime is characterized by low-frequency oscillations of the amplitude of the barriers around a certain saturation value. This is a transitory phenomenon stemming from the dynamical approach towards equilibrium in the wave-particle conservative system.

Self-consistent Lagrangian study of nonlinear Landau damping.

The electric field computed by numerically solving the one-dimensional Vlasov-Poisson system is used to calculate Lagrangian trajectories of particles in the wave-particle resonance region. The analysis of these trajectories shows that, when the initial amplitude of the electric field is above some threshold, two populations of particles are present: a first one located near the separatrix, which performs flights in the phase space and whose trajectories become ergodic and chaotic, and a second population of trapped particles, which displays a nonergodic dynamics. The complex, nonlinear interaction between these populations determines the oscillating long-time behavior of solutions.

Nanoflares and MHD turbulence in coronal loops: a hybrid shell model.

A model to describe injection, due to footpoint motions, storage, and dissipation of MHD turbulence in coronal loops, is presented. The model is based on the use of the shell technique in the wave vector space applied to the set of reduced MHD equations. Numerical simulation showed that the energy injected is efficiently stored in the loop where a significant level of magnetic and velocity fluctuations is obtained. Nonlinear interactions among these fluctuations give rise to an energy cascade towards smaller scales where energy is dissipated in an intermittent fashion. The statistical analysis performed on the intermittent dissipative events compares well with all observed properties of nanoflare emission statistics.

Barriers for transport in turbulent plasmas.

The control of transport due to electrostatic turbulence is investigated using test-particle simulations. We show that a barrier for the transport, that is, a region where transport is reduced, can be generated through the randomization of phases of the turbulent field. This corresponds to the annihilation of coherent structures which are present at all scales, without actually suppressing turbulence. When the barrier is active, a flux of particles towards the center of the simulation box is present inside the region where the barrier is located.