Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-14-2006

Publication Title

Physical Review Letters

Department

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Abstract

We investigate using direct numerical simulations with grids up to 15363 points, the rate at which small scales develop in a decaying three-dimensional MHD flow both for deterministic and random initial conditions. Parallel current and vorticity sheets form at the same spatial locations, and further destabilize and fold or roll up after an initial exponential phase. At high Reynolds numbers, a self-similar evolution of the current and vorticity maxima is found, in which they grow as a cubic power of time; the flow then reaches a finite dissipation rate independent of the Reynolds number.

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.244503

Original Citation

Mininni PD, Pouquet AG, Montgomery DC. Small-scale structures in three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. Phys Rev Lett. 2006 Dec 15;97(24):244503. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.244503. Epub 2006 Dec 14. PMID: 17280293.

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