Energy cascade and its locality in compressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence.

Abstract

We investigate energy transfer across scales in three-dimensional compressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence, a model often used to study space and astrophysical plasmas. Analysis shows that kinetic and magnetic energies cascade conservatively from large to small scales in cases with varying degrees of compression. With more compression, energy fluxes due to pressure dilation and subscale mass flux are greater, but conversion between kinetic and magnetic energy by magnetic line stretching is less efficient. Energy transfer between the same fields is dominated by local contributions regardless of compressive effects. In contrast, the conversion between kinetic and internal energy by pressure dilation is dominated by the largest scale contributions. Energy conversion between the velocity and magnetic fields is weakly local.