An alternative derivation of exact law for compressible and isothermal magnetohydrodynamics turbulence

NAHUEL ANDRÉS; FOUAD SAHRAOUI

PHYSICAL REVIEW E - STATISTICAL PHYSICS, PLASMAS, FLUIDS AND RELATED INTERDISCIPLINARY TOPICS

APS

Año: 2017 vol. 96

1063-651X

The exact law for fully developed homogeneous compressible magnetohydrodynamics (CMHD)turbulence is derived. For an isothermal plasma, without the assumption of isotropy, the exact law is expressed as a function of the plasma velocity field, the compressible Alfvén velocity and the scalar density, instead of the Elsasser variables used in previous works. The theoretical results show four different types of terms that are involved in the nonlinear cascade of the total energy in the inertial range. Each category is examined in detail, in particular those that can be written either as source or flux terms. Finally, the role of the background magnetic field B0 is highlighted and comparison with the incompressible MHD (IMHD) model is discussed. This point is particularly important when testing the new exact law on numerical simulations and in situ observations in space plasmas.