Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence: Generalized formulation and extension to compressible cases

A general framework that incorporates the Iroshnikov–Kraichnan (IK) and Goldreich–Sridhar (GS) phenomenalogies of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is developed. This affords a clarification of the regimes of validity of the IK and GS models and hence help resolve some controversies on this aspect. This general formulation appears to have a certain robustness as revealed here by its form invariance with respect to inclusion of compressible effects. Generalizations of the IK and GS spectra to compressible MHD turbulence are given. These two branches are shown to merge with the MHD shockwave spectrum, as to be expected, in the infinite compressibility limit.