Species Entropies in the Kinetic Range of Collisionless Plasma Turbulence: Particle-in-cell Simulations

Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of the forward cascade of decaying turbulence in the relatively short-wavelength kinetic range have been carried out as initial-value problems on collisionless, homogeneous, magnetized electron-ion plasma models. The simulations have addressed both whistler turbulence at beta(i) = beta(e) = 0.25 and kinetic Alfven turbulence at beta(i) = beta(e) = 0.50, computing the species energy dissipation rates as well as the increase of the Boltzmann entropies for both ions and electrons as functions of the initial dimensionless fluctuating magnetic field energy density epsilon(o) in the range 0 <= epsilon(o) <= 0.50. This study shows that electron and ion entropies display similar rates of increase and that all four entropy rates increase approximately as eo, consistent with the assumption that the quasilinear premise is valid for the initial conditions assumed for these simulations. The simulations further predict that the time rates of ion entropy increase should be substantially greater for kinetic Alfven turbulence than for whistler turbulence.