Weak magnetohydrodynamic turbulence of magnetized plasma

Abstract

Weak turbulence of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves in strongly magnetized plasma is studied when the thermal pressure is less than the magnetic field pressure. In this situation the main nonlinear mechanism is the resonance scattering of fast magneto-acoustic and Alfvenic waves on slow magneto-acoustic waves. As a result, the former waves serve as the high-frequency waves with respect to the latter ones so that the total number of HF waves - an adiabatic invariant - conserves additionally. In the weak turbulence regime this invariant is shown to generate the Kolmogorov type spectrum with a constant flux of HF waves towards large-scale region. In the short-wave region another Kolmogorov spectrum can be realized with a constant energy flux. The explicit angle dependences for both types of turbulent spectra are found for the propagation angles close to the direction of a mean magnetic field.