Spatiotemporal Analysis of Waves in Compressively Driven Magnetohydrodynamics Turbulence

Using direct numerical simulations (DNSs), the interaction between linear waves and turbulence under the compressible magnetohydrodynamic (CMHD) approach was studied. A set of DNSs in three dimensions for a spatial resolution of 128(3) and 256(3) were performed. A parametric study was carried out varying the sonic Mach number, the mean-magnetic field, and the compressibility amplitude of the forcing. Spatiotemporal spectra of the magnetic energy were built and analyzed, allowing for direct identification of all wave modes in a CMHD turbulent system and quantification of the amount of energy in each mode as a function of the wavenumber. Thus, linear waves were detected, that is Alfven waves and fast and slow magnetosonic waves. Furthermore, different responses of the plasma were found according to whether the Mach number or the mean-magnetic field was varied. On the other hand, making use of spatiotemporal spectra and two different integration methods, we accurately quantified the amount of energy present in each of the normal modes. Finally, although the presence of linear waves was observed, in all the cases studied the system was mainly dominated by the nonlinear dynamics of the plasma.