Large-scale kinetic simulations of decaying collisionless plasma turbulence

The properties of collisionless plasma turbulence at small (kinetic) scales are crucial for understanding how energy is dissipated, but remain poorly understood and controversial. Here we discuss results from 2D and 3D fully kinetic simulations that cover a range of scales from MHD to electron kinetic (e.g. gyro-radius and electron inertial length) and contain most of the physics necessary to provide first-principle description of the underlying processes. The focus is on characterization of kinetic-scale coherent structures and the role they play in dissipating the cascading energy.