Relativistic Kinetic Alfven Turbulence

Turbulence in magnetized astrophysical plasmas (e.g., solar flares, pulsar-wind nebulae, active galactic nuclei jets), as well as plasmas produced in laboratory experiments (intense laser-matter interaction), may include regimes where the speeds of particle thermal motions or of plasma bulk fluctuations are comparable to the speed of light. At scales larger than the plasma micro scales (i.e., particle inertial scales), such turbulence resembles Kolmorogov-like magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. In this presentation, we discuss turbulence at sub-inertial scales, which is analogous to kinetic Alfven turbulence in a non-relativistic plasma. Such turbulence is thought to be responsible for sub-inertial energy cascade as well as particle heating and acceleration.