Alfven wave turbulence in neutron star and black hole magnetospheres

by Joonas Nättilä (Columbia University, Flatiron Institute)

Wednesday 2 Mar 2022, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Stockholm

Albano 3: 6228 - Mega (22 seats) (Albano Building 3)

Note: Special time

Hybrid talk: Mega (6228, Hus 3, Albano) + https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/530682073

Relativistic turbulence can illuminate the magnetosphere of astrophysical compact objects, like pulsars, magnetars, neutron star mergers, and black hole accretion flows. It is natural to expect that the extreme magnetosphere of these objects is continuously ringing with magnetic shear modes --- Alfven waves. These Alfven waves are theoretically known to be capable of interacting nonlinearly and producing a wave turbulence that can forward cascade the energy from the largest scales to the smallest plasma scales. We use one of the largest, fully-kinetic, 3D simulations to study the generation of this Alfven wave turbulence when excited naturally, by colliding large-scale Alfvén waves. In my talk I will report on the surprising findings that originated from these simulations and how this can help us better understand the energization of magnetically dominated astrophysical plasmas.

Nattila_2022-03-02.mp4