Solar wind is a collisionless plasma well described by gryokinetics. The usual turbulence cascade picture of an injection scale, a well defined inertial range, and a dissipation scale applies. Energy flows down from the outer scales to smaller scales, where it finally dissipates into heat. A key unresolved question is how much energy goes into ions as compared to electrons. This turbulent system has an Alfvenic component and a slow mode component. The behavior of slow modes in an Alfvenic turbulent bath is still unclear. We present theory and numerical results exploring the nature of this cascade.

For additional information about the IREAP Graduate Student Seminars, contact David Meichle at dmeichle at umd.edu or Kevin Schoeffler at kschoeff at umd.edu.

The schedule for the IREAP Graduate Student Seminars can be found at http://www.ireap.umd.edu/ireap/seminars/grad/sem-grad.htm.