Theoretical astrophysics and plasma physics at RPC

Abstract:

A class of simple kinetic systems is considered, described by the 1D Vlasov--Landau equation with Poisson or Boltzmann electrostatic response and an energy source. Assuming a stochastic electric field, a solvable model is constructed for the phase-space turbulence of the particle distribution. The model is a kinetic analog of the Kraichnan--Batchelor model of chaotic advection. The solution of the model is found in Fourier--Hermite space and shows that the free-energy flux from low to high Hermite moments is suppressed, with phase mixing cancelled on average by anti-phase-mixing (stochastic plasma echo). This implies that Landau damping is an ineffective dissipation channel at wave numbers below a certain cut off (analog of Kolmogorov scale), which increases with the amplitude of the stochastic electric field and scales as inverse square of the collision rate. The full Fourier--Hermite spectrum is derived. Its asymptotics are $m^{-3/2}$ at low wave numbers and high Hermite moments ($m$) and $m^{-1/2}k^{-2}$ at low Hermite moments and high wave numbers ($k$). The energy distribution and flows in phase space are a simple and, therefore, useful example of competition between phase mixing and nonlinear dynamics in kinetic turbulence, reminiscent of more realistic but more complicated multi-dimensional systems that have not so far been amenable to complete analytical solution.