{
  "id": "1709.04963",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2017-09-14T20:13:27.000Z",
  "updated": "2017-09-14T20:13:27.000Z",
  "title": "Numerical investigation of kinetic turbulence in relativistic pair plasmas I: Turbulence statistics",
  "authors": [
    "Vladimir Zhdankin",
    "Dmitri A. Uzdensky",
    "Gregory R. Werner",
    "Mitchell C. Begelman"
  ],
  "comment": "24 pages, 26 figures, submitted for publication",
  "categories": [
    "astro-ph.HE",
    "physics.flu-dyn",
    "physics.plasm-ph"
  ],
  "abstract": "We describe results from particle-in-cell simulations of driven turbulence in collisionless, magnetized, relativistic pair plasma. This physical regime provides a simple setting for investigating the basic properties of kinetic turbulence and is relevant for high-energy astrophysical systems such as pulsar wind nebulae and astrophysical jets. In this paper, we investigate the statistics of turbulent fluctuations in simulations on lattices of up to $1024^3$ cells and containing up to $2 \\times 10^{11}$ particles. Due to the absence of a cooling mechanism in our simulations, turbulent energy dissipation reduces the magnetization parameter to order unity within a few dynamical times, causing turbulent motions to become sub-relativistic. In the developed stage, our results agree with predictions from magnetohydrodynamic turbulence phenomenology at inertial-range scales, including a power-law magnetic energy spectrum with index near $-5/3$, scale-dependent anisotropy of fluctuations described by critical balance, log-normal distributions for particle density and internal energy density (related by a $4/3$ adiabatic index, as predicted for an ultra-relativistic ideal gas), and the presence of intermittency. We also present possible signatures of a kinetic cascade by measuring power-law spectra for the magnetic, electric, and density fluctuations at sub-Larmor scales.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2017-09-14T20:13:27.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "relativistic pair plasma",
      "kinetic turbulence",
      "turbulence statistics",
      "numerical investigation",
      "turbulent energy dissipation reduces"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 24,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}