TY - JOUR
T1 - Woltjer-taylor state without taylor's conjecture
T2 - Plasma relaxation at all wavelengths
AU - Qin, Hong
AU - Liu, Wandong
AU - Li, Hong
AU - Squire, Jonathan
PY - 2012/12/3
Y1 - 2012/12/3
N2 - In the process of dissipative relaxation, there is strong astrophysical and laboratory evidence that plasmas tend to evolve towards the well-known Woltjer-Taylor state, specified by ×B=αB for constant α. To explain how such a state is reached, Taylor developed his famous theory based on the conjecture that relaxation is dominated by short wavelength fluctuations. However, there is no conclusive experimental or numerical evidence in support of Taylor's conjecture. A new theory is developed, which predicts that the system will evolve towards the Woltjer-Taylor state for an arbitrary fluctuation spectrum.
AB - In the process of dissipative relaxation, there is strong astrophysical and laboratory evidence that plasmas tend to evolve towards the well-known Woltjer-Taylor state, specified by ×B=αB for constant α. To explain how such a state is reached, Taylor developed his famous theory based on the conjecture that relaxation is dominated by short wavelength fluctuations. However, there is no conclusive experimental or numerical evidence in support of Taylor's conjecture. A new theory is developed, which predicts that the system will evolve towards the Woltjer-Taylor state for an arbitrary fluctuation spectrum.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84870612404
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84870612404&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.235001
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.235001
M3 - Article
C2 - 23368212
AN - SCOPUS:84870612404
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 109
JO - Physical review letters
JF - Physical review letters
IS - 23
M1 - 235001
ER -