Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Nov 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999aps..dpp.cm101r&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, 41st Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics, November 15-19, 1999 Seattle, WA, abstract #CM
Physics
Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
The inhomogenous interstellar plasma density modulates the radio signals received from pulsars. By studying the various modulations over the last 30 years, radio astronomers have built a model for the wavenumber spectrum of the plasma density and its spatial variations. I will review the evidence for what has become the canonical model, namely a Kolmogorov spectrum over scales from about 10^6m to 10^16m. There is an implication that there may be a turbulent cascade in the plasma over this astronomical scale range, but no direct information is available on the spectrum of velocity or magnetic field. In evaluating the evidence, I will address the influence of large static structures at low wavenumbers; if these have discontinuous density jumps (as in shocks), they could contribute a spectrum following a power law only slightly steeper than the Kolmogorov exponent. Although some lines of sight are clearly influenced by such large scale structures, recent observations in the regime of weak radio scintillations further strengthen the Kolmogorov model and provide limits for an inner scale less than about 2 × 10^7m. This limit remains consistent with a dissipation scale set by the ion inertial length (as proposed by Spangler and Gwinn, Ap. J., 376, L29, 1990). I will also discuss the potential for probing the velocity field over the line of sight.
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