Direct Numerical Simulations of Three-dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence with Random, Power-law Forcing

Abstract: We present pseudospectral direct-numerical-simulation (DNS) studies of the three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations (3DRFMHD) with a stochastic force that has zero mean and a variance $\sim k^{-3}$, where $k$ is the wavenumber, because 3DRFMHD is used in field-theoretic studies of the scaling of energy spectra in MHD turbulence. We obtain velocity and magnetic-field spectra and structure functions and, from these, the multiscaling exponent ratios $\zeta_p/\zeta_3$, by using the extended self similarity (ESS) procedure. These exponent ratios lie within error bars of their counterparts for conventional three-dimensional MHD turbulence (3DMHD). We then carry out a systematic comparison of the statistical properties of 3DMHD and 3DRFMHD turbulence by examining various probability distribution functions (PDFs), joint PDFs, and isosurfaces of of, e.g., the moduli of the vorticity and the current density for three magnetic Prandtl numbers ${\rm Pr_M} = 0.1,~1$, and $10$.