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Turbulence and Magnetic Fields in Astrophysical Plasmas

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Magnetohydrodynamics

Part of the book series: Fluid Mechanics And Its Applications ((FMIA,volume 80))

Magnetic fields permeate the Universe. They are found in planets, stars, accretion discs, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the intergalactic medium. While there is often a component of the field that is spatially coherent at the scale of the astrophysical object, the field lines are tangled chaotically and there are magnetic fluctuations at scales that range over orders of magnitude. The cause of this disorder is the turbulent state of the plasma in these systems. This plasma is, as a rule, highly conducting, so the magnetic field lines are entrained by (frozen into) the fluid motion. As the fields are stretched and bent by the turbulence, they can resist deformation by exerting the Lorentz force on the plasma. The turbulent advection of the magnetic field and the field’s back reaction together give rise to the statistically steady state of fully developed MHD turbulence. In this state, energy and momentum injected at large (object-size) scales are transfered to smaller scales and eventually dissipated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Imperial College, SW7 2BW, London, UK

    Alexander A. Schekochihin & Steven C. Cowley

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  1. Alexander A. Schekochihin
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  2. Steven C. Cowley
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Schekochihin, A.A., Cowley, S.C. (2007). Turbulence and Magnetic Fields in Astrophysical Plasmas. In: Magnetohydrodynamics. Fluid Mechanics And Its Applications, vol 80. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4833-3_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4833-3_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-4832-6

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