Structure of correlation tensors in homogeneous anisotropic turbulence
The theory of isotropic tensors, developed by Robertson (1940), Batchelor (1946), and Chandrasekhar (1951), is extended to cover the general case of turbulence with a pseudo-vector-preferred direction, without assuming mirror-reflection invariance. Attention is focused on two-point-correlation functions, and it is shown that the form of the decomposition into proper and pseudo-tensor contributions is restricted by the homogeneity requirement. The somewhat unexpected result that the vector- and pseudo-vector-preferred-direction cases yield different results is presented: A pseudo-vector-preferred direction allows the correlation matrix one more functional degree of freedom than does the proper vector case. An explicit form of the two-point-correlation tensor in the presence of a uniform mean magnetic field is presented which may be appropriate for use in analysis of magnetic fluctuations in plasma containment devices or the interplanetary medium. A procedure for determining the magnetic helicity from experimental data is presented.