Eric Hansen, UT-Austin

"On the Existence of Extended MHD Critically Balanced Time Scales"

Abstract: The Goldreich Sridhar theory (GS95) of strong magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in a perturbation of a static, mean magnetic field equilibrium anticipates that the nonlinear energy cascade time will evolve to balance the linear wave period. Several arguments underpinning this conjecture of critical balance are evaluated in a pseudospectral Hall MHD simulation to determine whether the premises of GS95 could be relevant for extended MHD or kinetic models of turbulence. The constancy of several invariant properties of the Hall MHD system is confirmed, and ratios of a nonlinear to a Hall MHD linear timescale are calculated to check whether a predicted increase to an asymptotic value of one has occurred.