Mapping closure for probability distribution function in low frequency magnetized plasma turbulence

Abstract

Recent numerical studies on the Hasegawa-Mima equation and its variants describing low frequency magnetized plasma turbulence indicate that the potential fluctuations have a Gaussian character whereas the vorticity exhibits non-Gaussian features. A theoretical interpretation for this observation using the recently developed mapping closure technique [Chen, Chen, and Kraichnan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 63, 2657 (1989)] has been provided here. It has been shown that non-Gaussian statistics for the vorticity arises because of a competition between nonlinear straining and diffusive damping whereas the Gaussianity of the statistics of φ arises because the only significant nonlinearity is associated with divergence free convection, which produces no strain terms.