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Updated: Jun 3, 2026

Simultaneous Measurement of Turbulence and Particle Kinematics Using Flow Imaging Techniques
Published on: March 12, 2019
Spectral slope and Kolmogorov constant of MHD turbulence
1Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico 87545, USA.
Abstract:
The spectral slope of strong MHD turbulence has recently been a matter of controversy. While the Goldreich-Sridhar model predicts a -5/3 slope, shallower slopes have been observed in numerics. We argue that earlier numerics were affected by driving due to a diffuse locality of energy transfer. Our highest-resolution simulation (3072(2)×1024) exhibited the asymptotic -5/3 scaling. We also discover that the dynamic alignment, proposed in models with -3/2 slope, saturates and cannot modify the asymptotic, high Reynolds number slope. From the observed -5/3 scaling we measure the Kolmogorov constant C(KA)=3.27±0.07 for Alfvénic turbulence and C(K)=4.2±0.2 for full MHD turbulence, which is higher than the hydrodynamic value of 1.64. This larger C(K) indicates inefficient energy transfer in MHD turbulence, which is in agreement with diffuse locality.
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