In spite of a large number of papers dedicated to study MHD turbulence in the
solar wind there are still some simple questions which have never been
sufficiently addressed like: a)do we really know how the magnetic field vector
orientation fluctuates in space? b) what is the statistics followed by the
orientation of the vector itself? c) does the statistics change as the wind
expands into the interplanetary space? A better understanding of these points
can help us to better characterize the nature of interplanetary fluctuations
and can provide useful hints to investigators who try to numerically simulate
MHD turbulence. This work follows a recent paper presented by the same authors.
This work follows a recent paper presented by some of the authors which shows
that these fluctuations might resemble a sort of random walk governed by a
Truncated Leevy Flight statistics. However, the limited statistics used in that
paper did not allow final conclusions but only speculative hypotheses. In this
work we aim to address the same problem using a more robust statistics which on
one hand forces us not to consider velocity fluctuations but, on the other hand
allows us to establish the nature of the governing statistics of magnetic
fluctuations with more confidence. In addition, we show how features similar to
those found in the present statistical analysis for the fast speed streams of
solar wind, are qualitatively recovered in numerical simulations of the
parametric instability. This might offer an alternative viewpoint for
interpreting the questions raised above.Comment: 25pag, 20 jpg small size figures. In press on "ANnales Geophysicae"
(September 2004
