Energy conversion in turbulent weakly collisional plasmas: Eulerian hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell simulations

Abstract

Kinetic simulations based on the Eulerian Hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell (HVM) formalism permit the examination of plasma turbulence with a useful resolution of the proton velocity distribution function. The HVM model is employed here to study the balance of energy, focusing on channels of conversion that lead to proton kinetic effects, including growth of internal energy and temperature anisotropies. We show that this Eulerian simulation approach, which is almost noise-free, is able to provide an accurate energy balance for protons. The results demonstrate explicitly that the recovered temperature growth is directly related to the role of the pressure-strain interaction. Furthermore, analysis of local spatial correlations indicates that the pressure-strain interaction is qualitatively associated with strong-current, high-vorticity structures although other local terms - such as the heat flux - weaken the correlation. These numerical capabilities based on the Eulerian approach will enable a deeper study of transfer and conversion channels in weakly collisional Vlasov plasmas.