1 Introduction
During the past five decades mean-field dynamo theories and numerical modelling have elaborately developed and obtained a great success in a number of research fields, including the studies of geo- and planetary magnetism, solar and stellar magnetic activity, interplanetary and interstellar magnetic fields, cosmical magnetic fields, etc. (for the role of dynamo-amplified fields in astrophysics, see, for example, a recent review by Federrath (Reference Federrath2016) and works cited therein). On the other hand, mainly due to its long history and wide applicability, mean-field theory gained a wide range of connotations: (i) kinematic approach with a prescribed velocity; (ii) simple modelling of the turbulent electromotive force with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}$ effects; (iii) transport coefficients as adjustable parameters; (iv) axisymmetry or homogeneity in the azimuthal direction; (v) assumption of incompressibility, and so on. Although none of these connotations is an intrinsic ingredient or limitation of the mean-field dynamo theory, those connotations have often been the sources of widespread criticism against the mean-field approach. A theory or model free from the above connotations or limitations will open great possibilities for dynamo studies. For the sake of avoiding the existing connotations, one may prefer referring to such dynamo studies as turbulence or nonlinear dynamos instead of mean-field dynamos, in particular to the communities outside of the dynamo community.
In this work, we address strongly compressible dynamo theory and modelling by investigating fully compressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. Even in compressible flow, if the compressibility is not so strong as is the case with shear flows without shocks, the turbulence can be substantially treated as incompressible. The basic framework of turbulence is incompressible turbulence, and the variable density (mean density stratification) effect on turbulence is implemented. This category of compressible flow may correspond to the celebrated vorticity mode by Kovasznay (Reference Kovasznay1953). Actually this is often the case for the typical dynamo problems of the large-scale magnetic field. However, in astrophysical phenomena, we often encounter shocks (Federrath et al. Reference Federrath, Roman-Duval, Klessen, Schmidt and Mac Low2010; Federrath & Klessen Reference Federrath and Klessen2012). Then we have to treat problems such as how shocks are generated in turbulent media, and how shocks affect the turbulence generation and structure (vorticity) formation in turbulence, etc. Even in hydrodynamic turbulence, shock–turbulence interaction is one of the most challenging problems for turbulence theory and modelling. Direct numerical simulations (DNSs) showed the fluctuation level, anisotropy of turbulent fluctuations and the intensity of the transverse vorticity are drastically enhanced across the shocks (Lee, Lele & Moin Reference Lee, Lele and Moin1993, Reference Lee, Lele and Moin1997). The reproduction and prediction of such phenomena by a self-consistent turbulence model is still difficult (Chassaing et al. Reference Chassaing, Antonia, Anselmet, Joly and Sarker2002; Sagaut & Cambon Reference Sagaut and Cambon2008; Schmidt, Federrath & Klessen Reference Schmidt, Federrath and Klessen2008; Garnier, Adams & Sagaut Reference Garnier, Adams and Sagaut2009; Aluie Reference Aluie2011; Galtier & Banerjee Reference Galtier and Banerjee2011; Banerjee & Galtier Reference Banerjee and Galtier2013).
An interesting problem related to compressible MHD turbulence is magnetic reconnection. Magnetic reconnection is ubiquitous in plasma phenomena. It is believed to be the cause of energetic eruption phenomena such as flares on the surface of the Sun, and of auroral substorms in the Earth’s magnetosphere. MHD slow shocks are known to contribute to fast reconnection by changing the geometry of the reconnection magnetic fields (Petschek Reference Petschek1964). Stochastic motion of the magnetic field has also been considered to be relevant to enhancing the magnetic reconnection rate (Yokoi & Hoshino Reference Yokoi and Hoshino2011; Higashimori, Yokoi & Hoshino Reference Higashimori, Yokoi and Hoshino2013; Karimabadi & Lazarian Reference Karimabadi and Lazarian2013; Yokoi, Higashimori & Hoshino Reference Yokoi, Higashimori and Hoshino2013). From the viewpoint of turbulence theory and modelling, the shock–turbulence interaction is one of the most difficult problems. In addition to the turbulence influence on the shock strength, the spatio-temporal evolution of the turbulence intensity and vortical structures should be determined by shock waves.
In the current theoretical studies of compressible MHD turbulence, weak compressibility has been often assumed, and the MHD waves behaviour has been investigated at a weak turbulence level. In this work, we perform a two-scale analysis of the highly compressible MHD turbulence. In contrast to the previous work along this line (Yoshizawa Reference Yoshizawa1996), we adopt a much more complete analysis including the Green’s function formulation in Fourier space, which enables us to evaluate the transport coefficients in a more elaborate manner. Also some turbulent correlations related to torsion or helicity can be treated only in the wavenumber space. A strong inhomogeneity of the mean density, typically associated with shock fronts, induces a large density fluctuation, which is represented by the density variance $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime 2}\rangle$ ( $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime }$ : density fluctuation, $\langle \cdots \rangle$ : mean). In this framework, the density-variance effect is analytically evaluated. We focus our argument on the roles of density variance in the turbulent electromotive force.
The organisation of this paper is as follows. In § 2 the equations of fully compressible MHD turbulence are presented from the fundamental equations with the Reynolds averaging procedure. In § 3, the procedure of the two-scale direct-interaction approximation (TSDIA) is covered, and the formal solution of the turbulence equations are obtained with the aid of Green’s functions. In § 4, the expression for the turbulent electromotive force is presented featuring strong compressibility effects. In § 5, on the basis of the analytical results, a model of the turbulent electromotive force is constructed with special emphasis on the density-variance effects. The physical origin of the density-variance effect is also examined. An application of the density-variance effect to fast magnetic reconnection is discussed in § 6. Summary and concluding remarks on the validation of the present results are given in § 7.
2 Fundamental equations
2.1 Magnetohydrodynamic equations
The equations of the density $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}$ , the velocity $\boldsymbol{u}$ , the internal energy $q$ and the magnetic field $\boldsymbol{b}$ are given by
with Ohm’s law for moving media:
where $p$ is the plasma gas pressure, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$ the viscosity, $\boldsymbol{j}$ the electric-current density, $\boldsymbol{e}$ the electric field, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}$ the thermal conductivity, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{0}$ the magnetic permeability, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}$ the electric conductivity and $s^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$ the deviatoric or traceless part of the velocity strain defined by
In (2.2), $\boldsymbol{f}_{\text{ex}}$ represents the external forces including the gravity force and external forcing. In what follows, we pay more attention to the theoretical formulation of the nonlinear turbulence dynamics that does not directly depend on specific forcing effects, so we neglect $\boldsymbol{f}_{\text{ex}}$ hereafter. In (2.3) $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ is the dissipation function that represents the conversion of the kinetic and magnetic energies to heat through molecular effects:
In the following theoretical calculations, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ is also neglected since our main interest lies in the $p$ -related effects in the turbulent transport. Note that these treatments do not deny the importance of the external forces and the dissipation function. Actually, in order to sustain turbulence and its evolution properties including energies and helicities, those effects play important roles.
The pressure $p$ is related to the temperature $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}$ and the internal energy $q$ as
where
Here, $C_{V}$ is the specific heat at constant volume, $R$ is the gas constant and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{\text{s}}$ is the ratio of $C_{P}$ (the specific heat at constant pressure) to $C_{V}$ .
From (2.4) and (2.5), the induction equation of the magnetic field is written as
or
where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}$ is the magnetic diffusivity defined as $\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}=1/(\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{0})$ .
2.2 Means and fluctuations
We divide a field quantity $f$ into the mean $F$ and the fluctuation around it, $f^{\prime }$ , as
with
2.3 Mean equations
The mean-density equation is
The mean velocity equation is written as
where $\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}}$ is the mean part of the viscosity and $S^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$ is the deviatoric or traceless part of the mean velocity strain defined by
Hereafter we drop the fluctuation part of the viscosity, thermal conductivity, magnetic diffusivity ( $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}^{\prime }=\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}^{\prime }=\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}^{\prime }=0$ ). Here $R_{U}$ is
The mean internal energy equation:
where $\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}}$ is the mean part of the thermal conductivity, and $R_{Q}$ is
The mean magnetic induction equation is
( $\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}}$ : mean part of the magnetic diffusivity). Hereafter $R_{U}$ and $R_{Q}$ will be neglected since their contributions are considered to be small.
2.4 Fluctuation equations
Subtracting the mean-field equations from (2.1)–(2.3) and (2.11), we obtain the equations of the fluctuation fields as follows:
where $\text{D}/\text{D}t=\unicode[STIX]{x2202}/\unicode[STIX]{x2202}t+\boldsymbol{U}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}$ . Hereafter, the terms expected to be small, $\boldsymbol{R}_{u}$ and $\boldsymbol{R}_{b}$ , will be neglected.
3 Multiple-scale analysis
In this work, we adopt the framework of the two-scale direct-interaction approximation (TSDIA), a closure scheme for inhomogeneous turbulence (Yoshizawa Reference Yoshizawa1984). In the TSDIA formalism, direct-interaction approximation (DIA), an elaborate closure scheme for fully nonlinear homogeneous turbulence (Kraichnan Reference Kraichnan1959), is combined with a multiple-scale analysis (Bender & Orszag Reference Bender and Orszag1978) to treat fully nonlinear inhomogeneous turbulence. The formal procedure of the TSDIA is constituted of:
(i) introduction of two scales;
(ii) Fourier representation with respect to the fast variables;
(iii) scale-parameter expansion;
(iv) basic-field expansion and introduction of Green’s functions;
(v) statistical assumptions on the lowest-order fields;
(vi) calculation of the correlation with renormalisation.
As for the details of the TSDIA procedure, the reader is referred to Yoshizawa (Reference Yoshizawa1984). Explanations including the application to the MHD turbulence, basic assumptions and approximations in the formalism are found in Yokoi (Reference Yokoi2013).
3.1 Introduction of two scales
We introduce two scales by the fast and slow variables as
where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$ is the scale parameter. If $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$ is small, the variables $\boldsymbol{X}$ and $T$ represent long spatial and time scales since they are not negligible only when the original variables $\boldsymbol{x}$ and $t$ change considerably. In this sense, $\boldsymbol{X}$ and $T$ are called the slow variables. The field quantities are expressed as
Here we assume the mean field depends on the slow variables whereas the fluctuation depends on both the fast and slow variables. Because of the chain rule for partial derivatives, the partial derivatives are written as
( $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}_{\boldsymbol{x}}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}=\unicode[STIX]{x2202}/\unicode[STIX]{x2202}x^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}$ , $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D743}}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}=\unicode[STIX]{x2202}/\unicode[STIX]{x2202}\unicode[STIX]{x1D709}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}$ , and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}_{\boldsymbol{X}}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}=\unicode[STIX]{x2202}/\unicode[STIX]{x2202}X^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}$ ). This is a derivative expansion: a derivative with respect to a slow variable appears as a higher-order term in $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$ . We seek solutions which are functions of both fast and slow variables, $(\boldsymbol{X};T)$ and $(\unicode[STIX]{x1D743};\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F})$ artificially treated as independent variables.
Under the two-scale descriptions, the equations of the fluctuation fields are written as
where $\text{D}/\text{D}T=\unicode[STIX]{x2202}/\unicode[STIX]{x2202}T+\boldsymbol{U}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}_{\boldsymbol{X}}$ .
3.2 Fourier transform with respect to the fast variables
We use the Fourier representation with respect to the fast spatial variable $\unicode[STIX]{x1D743}$ as
Here the factor $\text{i}\boldsymbol{k}\boldsymbol{\cdot }(\unicode[STIX]{x1D743}-\boldsymbol{U}\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F})$ means that the fast-varying motions of turbulence are treated in the frame moving with the velocity $\boldsymbol{U}$ .
The system of equations of MHD turbulence consists of
where
3.3 Scale-parameter expansion
We apply the scale-parameter expansion
to (3.9)–(3.12). The zeroth-order $O(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}^{0})$ equations are written as
On the other hand, the first-order $O(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}^{1})$ equations are
3.4 Basic-field expansion and introduction of the Green’s functions
In the TSDIA formalism, the systems of (3.17)–(3.20) and (3.21)–(3.24) are formally solved with the aid of the Green’s functions associated with (3.17)–(3.20). These Green’s functions are nonlinearly coupled to each other. In order to reduce this complexity, we introduce the basic fields. The zeroth-order fields $f_{0}=(\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{0}^{\prime },\boldsymbol{u}_{0}^{\prime },q_{0}^{\prime },\boldsymbol{b}_{0}^{\prime })$ are expanded as
where $m$ is the number of iterations and the basic fields $f_{\text{B}}^{\prime }(\equiv f_{00}^{\prime })=(\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{\text{B}}^{\prime },\boldsymbol{u}_{\text{B}}^{\prime },q_{\text{B}}^{\prime },\boldsymbol{b}_{\text{B}}^{\prime })$ are defined by the following equations:
The basic fields correspond to the homogeneous and isotropic turbulent fields. For these basic fields, we introduce four Green’s functions, $G_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}^{\prime }$ , $G_{u}^{\prime }$ , $G_{q}^{\prime }$ and $G_{b}^{\prime }$ , defined by the equations
With the Green’s functions, the zeroth-order field (3.17)–(3.20) can be solved in an iterative manner as
With the aid of Green’s functions, we can formally solve (3.21)–(3.24) to obtain
3.5 Statistical assumptions on the basic fields
We assume the statistical property of the basic fields, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{\text{B}}^{\prime }$ , $\boldsymbol{u}_{\text{B}}^{\prime }$ , $\boldsymbol{b}_{\text{B}}^{\prime }$ , and $q_{\text{B}}^{\prime }$ , as
where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D751}^{\prime }$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D74C}^{\prime }$ represent either one of the velocity and magnetic field fluctuations, $\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }$ and $\boldsymbol{b}^{\prime }$ , $D^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F1}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$ are the solenoidal projection operator and its compressible counterpart defined by
Here, $Q_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D717}\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}\text{S}}$ and $Q_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D717}\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}\text{C}}$ are the spectral functions of the solenoidal and compressible parts.
On the other hand, for Green’s functions of the basic fields, the simplest possible forms are assumed as
In general, we should consider more complicated forms arising from the complicated nonlinear interactions between the field quantities. However, for the sake of simplicity, we just retain the simplest possible Green’s functions in (3.46)–(3.49).
Under the assumptions on the basic fields (3.42)–(3.44), we have
In the following, we also use the spectral functions associated with the solenoidal and compressional components of the basic field: $\boldsymbol{u}_{\text{B}}^{\prime }=\boldsymbol{u}_{\text{BS}}^{\prime }+\boldsymbol{u}_{\text{BC}}^{\prime }$ , such as
etc.
3.6 Calculation of correlations with renormalisation
Each order of the fields is expressed in terms of the correlation and response functions of the basic fields. We calculate the turbulent correlations with the zeroth- and first-order fields with the statistical properties of the basic fields (3.42)–(3.44) and (3.46)–(3.49). The correlation between $f^{\prime }$ and $g^{\prime }$ in the configuration space is calculated from their counterparts in the wavenumber space as
Following the direct-interaction approximation (DIA) formalism, the basic-field propagators are replaced with their exact counterparts (renormalisation). Note that the scale-expansion parameter $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$ automatically disappears through the replacement of $\boldsymbol{X}\rightarrow \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}\boldsymbol{x}$ and $T\rightarrow \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}t$ .
4 Turbulent electromotive force
4.1 Theoretical expression for turbulent electromotive force
In the present work, we concentrate on the turbulent electromotive force
From the formal solutions of the fluctuation velocity $\boldsymbol{u}_{0}^{\prime }$ (3.35) and $\boldsymbol{u}_{1}^{\prime }$ (3.39) and the fluctuation magnetic field $\boldsymbol{b}_{0}^{\prime }$ (3.37) and $\boldsymbol{b}_{1}^{\prime }$ (3.41), the expression of the turbulent electromotive force is calculated.
In this multiple-scale analysis with (3.3), the divergence of a fluctuating vector field $\boldsymbol{f}^{\prime }(\boldsymbol{x};t)$ is written as
or equivalently in the wavenumber space
where
is the spatial derivative in the so-called interaction representation associated with (3.8). In order to secure the divergence-free condition for the solenoidal or incompressible field quantities, we introduce the solenoidal field $\boldsymbol{f}_{\text{S}}^{\prime }(\boldsymbol{k},\boldsymbol{X};\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F},T)$ as
which satisfies the solenoidal condition for each order of the solenoidal fields as
in the wavenumber space (Hamba Reference Hamba1987). In the theoretical analysis, each order of the solenoidal field is calculated by the combination of
The second terms may be called the solenoidal corrections to each order of field. These terms give rise to the contributions to the turbulent magnetic diffusivity and the magnetic pumping effect through the turbulent MHD residual energy (the difference between the turbulent kinetic and magnetic energies). See (4.13) and (4.15b ) shown later.
In addition to the usual solenoidal terms arising from the incompressible MHD turbulence, we have some terms originating from compressibility. Among them, the ones related to the fluctuation dilatation are important in strongly compressible turbulence. Those terms are written as
where
From the expressions of the zeroth-order density $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{0}^{\prime }$ (3.34), internal energy $q_{0}^{\prime }$ (3.36) and magnetic field $\boldsymbol{b}_{0}^{\prime }$ (3.37) with the statistical properties of the basic fields (3.46)–(3.49), these terms are expressed as
These contributions to the turbulent electromotive force can be expressed as
Here, use has been made of the identity relations such as
It should be noted that all the terms (4.11) are related to the magnitude of turbulent dilatation, represented by $(\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D743}}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{u}_{\text{B}}^{\prime })^{2}$ . We see from the second term of (3.34) that such a dilatation is directly related to the density variance. This point will be argued later in § 5.2.
With the results of the present analysis of inhomogeneous MHD turbulence, the expression for the turbulent electromotive force (EMF) is written as
Here, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ , $\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}$ , $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ , $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}$ , $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}}$ , $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{Q}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{D}$ are the transport coefficients. As shown below, the latter three terms related to the $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}$ values have a genuine compressibility origin. For the sake of simplicity of description, we introduce the abbreviated integral forms of the time and wavenumber integrals as
With these abbreviated forms, the transport coefficients in (4.13) are written as
4.2 A few notes on turbulent transport coefficients
The coefficient $\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}$ (4.15b ) corresponds to the difference between the kinetic and magnetic energy or the turbulent MHD residual energy. This directly arises from the solenoidal corrections to the velocity and magnetic field fluctuations. The third term on the right-hand side of (4.13) represents the so-called magnetic pumping effect. The coefficient of the magnetic pumping is determined by the gradient of the residual energy, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}$ .
With (4.15a ) and (4.15b ), the turbulent magnetic diffusivity or the coefficient for the mean electric current $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\times \boldsymbol{B}$ is expressed as
This shows that, in the compressible case, the turbulent magnetic energy $\langle \boldsymbol{b}^{\prime 2}\rangle /2$ represented by $Q_{b}$ may contribute to the turbulent magnetic diffusivity in coupling with the compressible response $G_{u\text{C}}$ . How much the turbulent magnetic diffusivity depends on the magnetic fluctuation is to be determined by the magnitude of the magnetic energy spectrum $Q_{b}$ and the compressible response time of the velocity field, which should be reflected in the turbulent Mach number $M_{\text{t}}$ . Its dependence on $M_{\text{t}}$ is an interesting subject for future study.
In the solenoidal limit, with vanishing $Q_{u\text{C}}$ and $G_{u\text{C}}$ , the turbulent magnetic diffusivity depends only on the turbulent kinetic energy as
in the calculation up to $O(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}^{1})$ (4.1). As for the dependence of the turbulent magnetic diffusivity on the magnetic fluctuation $\langle \boldsymbol{b}^{\prime 2}\rangle$ , the reader is referred to Rogachevskii & Kleeorin (Reference Rogachevskii and Kleeorin2001, Reference Rogachevskii and Kleeorin2004). Another possibly interesting point is the sign of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}$ . As can be seen in (4.15b ), the coefficient $\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}$ is related to the difference between the kinetic and magnetic energies (MHD residual energy), and can be negative. However, the total coefficient of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\times \boldsymbol{B}$ , $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}+\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}$ (4.16), is still positive in this formulation. As for the possibility of a negative turbulent magnetic diffusivity for intermediate magnetic Reynolds numbers, see Rädler et al. (Reference Rädler, Brandenburg, Del Sordo and Rheinhardt2011).
Notice that the final three terms, the terms related to $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}}$ , $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{Q}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{D}$ , in (4.13) represent genuine compressible effects. The transport coefficients $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}}$ (4.15e ), $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{Q}$ (4.15f ), and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{D}$ (4.15g ) do not depend on the solenoidal part of the kinetic energy, $Q_{u\text{S}}$ , but only on the compressible part of the energy spectrum, $Q_{u\text{C}}$ . In the following section, we will see that this compressible turbulent energy is linked to the dilatation and contraction of the fluctuating motion and directly connected to the density variance $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime 2}\rangle$ .
Equations (4.15e ) and (4.15f ) show that these effects do not show up in the isothermal process, where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{\text{s}}=1$ . As can be seen in § 5.4 for the physical pictures of these effects, the coupling of the internal energy fluctuation $q^{\prime }$ and density fluctuation $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime }$ with the fluctuation motion $\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }$ is essential for these effects. In the isothermal cycle, where the thermal energy cannot be derived as the kinetic energy in a cycle, such links between the heat and motion are missing (see (5.11) and (5.13)). Related to this point, see recent work by Rogachevskii, Kleeorin & Brandenburg (Reference Rogachevskii, Kleeorin and Brandenburg2018).
5 Modelling of turbulent electromotive force
5.1 Choice of turbulent statistical quantities
In order to construct a system of turbulence model equations, we have to choose a set of turbulent statistical quantities that properly represent the statistical properties of turbulence. For instance, if we have decided to adopt an eddy-viscosity type model for the Reynolds stress as $\langle {u^{\prime }}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}{u^{\prime }}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}\rangle _{\text{D}}=-\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}_{t}{\mathcal{S}}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$ ( ${\mathcal{S}}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$ is the rate of strain tensor for the mean velocity, ${\mathcal{A}}_{\text{D}}$ denotes the deviatoric or traceless part of a tensor $\unicode[STIX]{x1D63C}$ : ${\mathcal{A}}_{\text{D}}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}={\mathcal{A}}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}-{\mathcal{A}}^{aa}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}/3$ ), we still need an expression for the eddy viscosity $\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}_{t}$ . Depending on the level of closure theory, there are several possibilities for the expression of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}_{t}$ . The most naïve one is to adopt a parameter value for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}_{t}$ . Another simple possibility is to adopt the mixing length $\ell$ and a characteristic turbulence velocity $v$ to express $\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}_{t}=v\ell$ . If we choose the turbulent energy $K$ instead of $v$ , the eddy viscosity in the mixing-length model can be expressed as $\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}_{t}=\ell K^{1/2}$ (Kolmogorov–Prandtl expression). If we choose the turbulent energy $K$ and its dissipation rate $\unicode[STIX]{x1D716}$ as the turbulent statistical quantities, the eddy viscosity can be expressed as $\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}_{t}=K^{2}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D716}$ (apart from the model constant) without resorting to using a mixing length. Instead of using the mixing length, a somewhat arbitrarily determined quantity, we solve the transport equations of $K$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D716}$ . As compared with the mixing-length approach, the transport equation approach makes it possible to construct a turbulence model which is based on the nonlinear dynamics of turbulence evolution. However, in any case, it is crucial to choose an appropriate set of turbulent statistical quantities in order to construct a closed system of model equations.
5.2 Density-variance effect
In a strong compressibility case, the dilatation and contraction of the fluctuating motion represented by the divergence of the fluctuation velocity $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }$ are among the most important field quantities. This point is clearly seen in the fourth term of the left-hand side of the original equation for the density fluctuation (2.21). In homogeneous compressible turbulence without large-scale inhomogeneity, this turbulent dilatation is the main source of the density fluctuation (see (3.17)), so the turbulence dilatation and contraction represented by $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }$ are considered to be equivalent to the density fluctuation as
where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}$ is the time scale of the density evolution.
In the present formulation, the lowest-order density fluctuation is given as (3.34), whose second term represents the density fluctuation directly related to the dilatation $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }$ as
Due to the strong compressibility, we assume that this part of density fluctuation is much larger than its counterpart due to the solenoidal turbulent eddies, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{\text{B}}^{\prime }$ . It follows from (5.2) that the density variance $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime 2}\rangle$ is approximated as
with the abbreviated form of integral
In the case of strong compressibility, the correlation time of the density variation can be comparable to the eddy turnover time. The contribution of $\text{i}k^{a}u_{\text{B}}^{\prime }~^{a}(\boldsymbol{k};\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{1})$ (the Fourier transform of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{u}_{\text{B}}^{\prime }$ ) has fallen to zero from the past time that is older than $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}>t_{1}$ , where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}$ is the characteristic time defined by
For example, this is equivalent to having
where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EF}$ is the Heaviside step function: $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EF}(t)=1$ for $t>0$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EF}(t)=0$ for $t<0$ . With this approximation, equation (5.2) can be rewritten as
This corresponds to the Markovianised approximation of the dilatation effect.
From (5.3), the compressible energy spectrum is related to the density variance as
or equivalently,
In other words, the compressible component of the turbulent motion appearing in (4.15e )–(4.15g ), which is directly related to the divergence of the fluctuating velocity, is represented by the density variance.
We should note that, from the viewpoint of turbulence modelling, it is very important to choose the density variance $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime 2}\rangle$ as a basic statistical quantity as well as the turbulent kinetic energy, magnetic energy and several helicities. As has been explained in § 5.1, in the turbulence modelling approach, a system of equations should be constructed in a closed form and a self-consistent manner. The mean-field equations with transport coefficients ( $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ , $\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}$ , $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ , $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}$ , etc.) should be solved simultaneously with the equations of the turbulent statistical quantities, which represent the statistical properties of the turbulence and express the transport coefficients. In order to construct a closed system of equations in strongly compressible turbulence, we solve the transport equation of the density variance:
with the model expressions for the turbulent correlations such as the turbulent mass flux $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime }\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }\rangle$ , the density–dilatation correlation $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime }\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }\rangle$ , etc. The details of the modelling of those correlations are suppressed here.
It should be also noted that the density variance normalised by the square of the mean density, $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime 2}\rangle /\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}^{2}$ , is strongly correlated to the turbulent Mach number $M_{\text{t}}$ , and considered to be one of the most important quantities representing the strong compressibility effect (Chassaing et al. Reference Chassaing, Antonia, Anselmet, Joly and Sarker2002).
5.3 Model of the turbulent electromotive force
With the aid of the analytical expressions of the turbulent transport coefficients (4.15), we can construct model expressions for the transport coefficients for the turbulent electromotive force (4.13) as
5.4 Physical origin of density-variance effect
The fifth term of (4.13) suggests that the obliqueness between the mean-density gradient $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}$ and magnetic field $\boldsymbol{B}$ contributes to the turbulent electromotive force in the presence of the density variance $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime 2}\rangle$ . Let us consider the physical origin of this effect and see a possible situation in which this effect plays an essential role.
The equations for the fluctuation velocity and magnetic field are written as (2.22) and (2.24), respectively. The relevant contributions may be written as
In (5.11), use has been made of the simplest expression for the internal energy fluctuation:
(see (3.36)). Equation (5.11) indicates that the direction of the velocity variation is parallel (anti-parallel) to the direction of the mean-density gradient $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}$ if the turbulent dilatation $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }$ is positive (negative) (see figure 1). On the other hand, we see from (5.12) that the direction of the magnetic field variation is antiparallel (parallel) to the mean magnetic field $\boldsymbol{B}$ if the dilatation $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }$ is positive (negative) (see figure 2).
It follows from (5.11) and (5.12) that the turbulent electromotive force is expressed as
where use has been made of (5.13) and the simplest expression for the density fluctuation, equation (5.1).
Equation (5.14) is equivalent to the fifth term in (4.13) with (5.10e ). This expression shows that, irrespective of the sign of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }$ (dilatation or contraction), the density variance will contribute to the turbulent EMF in the direction of $\boldsymbol{B}\times \unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}$ (figure 3).
Similar arguments can be made for the other terms related to $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{Q}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{D}$ .
6 Density-variance effects in fast magnetic reconnection
We focus on the effect of large-scale density condensation/stratification, and confine our arguments to the fifth or $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}}$ -related term in (4.13).
The density-variance equation is given by (5.9) as
where $\text{H.T.}$ denotes the terms of higher-order correlation in the fluctuations. The second term denotes the mean dilatation effect. A mean-flow contraction ( $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{U}<0$ ), produces a higher density variance. The first term shows the importance of the mean-density inhomogeneity coupled with the turbulent mass flux in the density-variance evolution. With the simplest possible model expression for the turbulent mass flux: $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime }\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }\rangle =-\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}_{\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}}\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}$ ( $\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}_{\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}}$ : positive turbulent mass-flux coefficient), it shows that a large gradient of mean density leads to a large density variance through density-variance production: $+2\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}_{\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}})^{2}$ .
We consider the roles of the density variance in the magnetic reconnection from the viewpoint of turbulent transport. Slow MHD shock waves are expected to contribute to the fast reconnection (Petschek Reference Petschek1964). Since shock waves are always associated with a large density variation, the density variance must be ubiquitous in the magnetic reconnection. The evolution equation of the turbulent kinetic energy $\langle \boldsymbol{u}^{\prime 2}\rangle /2$ is given as
where $\text{R.T.}$ denotes the residual terms arising from the turbulent mass flux $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime }\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }\rangle$ , the turbulent heat fluxes $\langle q^{\prime }\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }\rangle$ , the dissipation and transport rates, whose explicit expressions are suppressed here. In the upstream region, where the gradient of the mean density is positive in the direction to the downstream and the magnetic field is in the direction vertical to the inflow direction (figure 4). Then we have a contribution to the EMF parallel to the original reconnection current. Substitution of (5.14) into (6.2) gives an enhancement of the turbulent energy production in the upstream region. On the other hand, in the downstream region, where the magnetic field and the gradient of mean density are aligned with each other, this effect should immediately disappear.
In the slow shocks in magnetic reconnection, the turbulent EMF due to the mean-density variation enhances the turbulence generation in the foreshock (upstream) region and intensifies the turbulence level across the shock front.
7 Summary and concluding remarks
7.1 Summary
A system of equations for fully compressible MHD turbulence was investigated with the aid of the two-scale direct-interaction approximation (TSDIA) formulation: a combination of a renormalised perturbation closure scheme for very high Reynolds number turbulence by Kriachnan with a multiple-scale analysis, developed to analyse inhomogeneous turbulence. The main results in this work are the analytical expression for the turbulent EMF (4.13). In addition to the usual mean-field terms in the turbulent electromotive force in the incompressible case, some terms directly connected to the full compressibility have been derived from the fundamental equations. They are $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}$ -related terms (4.11a )–(4.11c ), with the analytical expressions for the $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}$ -related transport coefficients $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}}$ (4.15e ), $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{Q}$ (4.15f ) and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{D}$ (4.15g ).
On the basis of these theoretical expressions, we proposed a simplified system of model expressions for the strong compressibility effects in terms of the density variance $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime 2}\rangle$ . The time scales in (5.10), $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}$ , $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{u}$ , $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{q}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{b}$ are determined by Green’s functions, which obey (3.30)–(3.33), respectively. If the time scales $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{q}$ , $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{u}$ , etc. can be treated as the same, the model expression becomes much simpler.
In the presence of a strong compressibility represented by the density variance $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime 2}\rangle$ , the mean-density inhomogeneity $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}$ , as well as the mean internal energy inhomogeneity $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}Q$ and the non-equilibrium mean flow $D\boldsymbol{U}/DT$ , coupled with the oblique mean magnetic field $\boldsymbol{B}$ can contribute to the production of the turbulent electromotive force. Since they are mediated by the density variance, these effects are important in the region with a very strong turbulent dilatation and contraction. The vicinity of a shock front, where a strong density variation exists, is one of the places these effects are relevant. This mechanism is expected to work for fast magnetic reconnection by locally enhancing the intensity of turbulence across the shock front, as compared with the incompressible turbulence case.
7.2 Approaches for validation
For the validation or test of these strong compressibility effects, we can perform numerical simulations of inhomogeneous turbulence. The most straightforward approach is validations through direct numerical simulations (DNSs). The simulation set-up utilised in Yokoi & Balarac (Reference Yokoi and Balarac2011) for a Kolmogorov flow in MHD turbulence and the one in Yokoi & Brandenburg (Reference Yokoi and Brandenburg2016) based on Yokoi & Yoshizawa (Reference Yokoi and Yoshizawa1993) for rotating helical hydrodynamic (HD) turbulence may provide a basis of the numerical set-up. Since the normalised density variance $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime 2}\rangle /\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}^{2}$ is expected to be large only in the region where the mean-density stratification is very large, vicinity of a shock front is an appropriate location to check these effects. DNSs of a boxed turbulence with a strongly localised density stratification whose inhomogeneous direction is perpendicular to a uniform magnetic field may be a possible set-up. Then we can compare the DNS data of turbulent EMF, $\langle \boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }\times \boldsymbol{b}^{\prime }\rangle$ (the left-hand side of (4.13)) and the model expression (the right-hand side of (4.13)) with the transport coefficients evaluated by (5.10).
Another, less direct but more practical, approach is to perform turbulence model simulations in a simple configuration of the magnetic reconnection. Yokoi & Hoshino (Reference Yokoi and Hoshino2011) proposed a turbulence model for fast magnetic reconnection. There, in addition to the evolution of the mean-field quantities, the evolution of turbulence is solved through the transport equations of the turbulent statistical quantities such as the MHD energy, its dissipation rate, helicity, cross-helicity, etc. A series of applications of the turbulence model to simple configurations of the magnetic reconnection (Yokoi & Hoshino Reference Yokoi and Hoshino2011; Higashimori et al. Reference Higashimori, Yokoi and Hoshino2013; Yokoi et al. Reference Yokoi, Higashimori and Hoshino2013; Widmer, Büchner & Yokoi Reference Widmer, Büchner and Yokoi2016a ,Reference Widmer, Büchner and Yokoi b ) showed that the Petchek-type fast reconnection can be obtained and sustained for a long time as a stationary state in the framework of MHD if fully developed nonlinear turbulence is self-generated and sustained by the large-scale inhomogeneities of the mean fields. This approach is somewhat different from the previous studies of fast magnetic reconnection, such as fast magnetic reconnection in fully developed homogeneous turbulence that is externally injected by forcing, and the fast magnetic reconnection obtained by some highly inhomogeneous instability but not at the fully developed nonlinear stage. The turbulence model approach to fast magnetic reconnection has already given novel results (Higashimori et al. Reference Higashimori, Yokoi and Hoshino2013; Yokoi et al. Reference Yokoi, Higashimori and Hoshino2013; Widmer et al. Reference Widmer, Büchner and Yokoi2016a ,Reference Widmer, Büchner and Yokoi b ). But the turbulence solved there so far has been incompressible ( $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }=0$ ) while the mean fields are solved with a variable mean density ( $\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}\neq 0$ ). In order to implement the present density-variance effects in this turbulence model for fast magnetic reconnection, we have to add at least the equation of the density variance $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime 2}\rangle$ with a model of the turbulent mass flux $\langle \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{\prime }\boldsymbol{u}^{\prime }\rangle$ etc. (see (6.1)). From the arguments extended in § 6, the density-variance effects are expected to locally enhance the level of turbulence. These compressibility effects should be preferable for the realisation of more fast reconnection often observed in the solar flare reconnections. The validation of the turbulence model can be done in a similar manner as in Widmer et al. (Reference Widmer, Büchner and Yokoi2016b ). With the present analytical results shown in § 3, such an extension is very straightforward, and will be reported in a forthcoming paper.
Acknowledgements
Part of this work was conducted under the support of the JSPS Grants-in-Aid Scientific Research 18H01212 and that of the ISEE (Nagoya University) Collaborative Research Program 2017. Part of this work was also performed during the author’s stay at Kiepenheuer Institut für Sonnenphysik (KIS) in Freiburg (hosted by M. Roth), at Max-Planck Institut für Sonnensystemforschung (MPS) in Göttingen (by M. Käpylä and J. Büchner) in August 2017 and Commissariat à L’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA) Paris-Saclay (by Sacha Brun) in March 2018 as a visiting researcher. The author would like to cordially dedicate this work to the memory of his mentor and great friend, A. Yoshizawa (25 August 1942–3 June 2018), who kept inspiring him through thoughtful and heartfelt encouragement from the beginning of his research career.