2008/07/31 by Jean C. Perez, Jean C Perez, Stanislav Boldyrev · 8 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph #physics.flu-dyn #physics.plasm-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.102.025003
published as Physical Review Letters, 102, 025003 (2009) · 4 pages, 4 figures
openalex publication_date 2009/01/14 · arxiv created 2009/01/16 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Strong incompressible three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulence is investigated by means of high-resolution direct numerical simulations. The simulations show that the configuration space is characterized by regions of positive and negative cross-helicity, corresponding to highly aligned or antialigned velocity and magnetic field fluctuations, even when the average cross-helicity is zero. To elucidate the role of cross-helicity, the spectra and structure of turbulence are obtained in "imbalanced" regions where cross-helicity is nonzero. When averaged over regions of positive and negative cross-helicity, the result is consistent with the simulations of balanced turbulence. An analytical explanation for the obtained results is proposed.