Hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell simulations of two-dimensional turbulence in plasmas

Abstract

Turbulence in plasmas is a very challenging problem since it involves wave-particle interactions, which are responsible for phenomena such as plasma dissipation, acceleration mechanisms, heating, temperature anisotropy, and so on. In this work, a hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell numerical code is employed to study local kinetic processes in a two-dimensional turbulent regime. In the present model, ions are treated as a kinetic species, while electrons are considered as a fluid. As recently reported in [S. Servidio, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 045001 (2012)], nearby regions of strong magnetic activity, kinetic effects manifest through a deformation of the ion velocity distribution function that consequently departs from the equilibrium Maxwellian configuration. Here, the structure of turbulence is investigated in detail in phase space, by evaluating the high-order moments of the particle velocity distribution, i.e., temperature, skewness, and kurtosis. This analysis provides quantitative information about the non-Maxwellian character of the system dynamics. This departure from local thermodynamic equilibrium triggers several processes commonly observed in many astrophysical and laboratory plasmas.