First Laboratory Observations of Residual Energy Generation in Strong Alfvén Wave Interactions

In the MHD inertial range (scales larger than ion-kinetic scales) turbulent fluctuations in the solar wind are often Alfvénic in character, meaning that their magnetic and flow velocity fluctuations are proportional to each other and predominantly perpendicular to the background magnetic field. However, observations of the solar wind have shown that there is a significant difference in the energy in velocity fluctuations and normalized magnetic fluctuations. This difference, called the residual energy, should be zero for linear Alfvén waves, but is consistently observed to be negative in the solar wind, with magnetic fluctuations dominating. This work investigates the energy partition in strong three-wave interactions through an experimental campaign on the LArge Plasma Device (LAPD) in an MHD-like regime. Primary (driven) modes are launched from antennas, and secondary modes generated by the strong three-wave interaction are observed. The primary modes are shown to have no residual energy, while the secondary modes have significant residual energy - negative in the “sum” mode and positive in the “difference” mode. These results constitute the first laboratory demonstration that residual energy can indeed be generated by nonlinear mode coupling.