Turbulence is a ubiquitous phenomenon in space and astrophysical plasmas, driving a cascade of energy from large to small scales and strongly influencing the plasma heating resulting from the dissipation of the turbulence. Modern theories of plasma turbulence are based on the fundamental concept that the turbulent cascade of energy is caused by the nonlinear interaction between counterpropagating Alfvén waves, yet this interaction has never been observationally or experimentally verified. We present here the first experimental measurement in a laboratory plasma of the nonlinear interaction between counterpropagating Alfvén waves, the fundamental building block of astrophysical plasma turbulence. This measurement establishes a firm basis for the application of theoretical ideas developed in idealized models to turbulence in realistic space and astrophysical plasma systems.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 36. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 29 December 2012.
All research outputs
#1,274,559
of 28,841,988 outputs
Outputs from Physical Review Letters
#3,766
of 43,685 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#8,966
of 289,960 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Physical Review Letters
#16
of 694 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 28,841,988 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 95th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 43,685 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 289,960 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 694 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
