Alfvenic Turbulence Beyond the Ambipolar Diffusion Scale

Abstract

We investigate the nature of the Alfvénic turbulence cascade in two fluid MHD simulations in order to determine if turbulence is damped once the ion and neutral species become decoupled at a critical scale called the ambipolar diffusion scale (L${}_{AD}$). Using mode decomposition to separate the three classical MHD modes, we study the second order structure functions of the Alfvén mode velocity field of both neutrals and ions in the reference frame of the local magnetic field. On scales greater than L${}_{AD}$ we confirm that two fluid turbulence strongly resembles single fluid MHD turbulence. Our simulations show that the behavior of two fluid turbulence becomes more complex on scales less than L${}_{AD}$. We find that Alfvenic turbulence can exist past L${}_{AD}$ when the turbulence is globally super-Alfvénic, with the ions and neutrals forming separate cascades once decoupling has taken place. When turbulence is globally sub-Alfvenic and hence strongly anisotropic with a large separation between the parallel and perpendicular decoupling scales, turbulence is damped at L${}_{AD}$. We also find that the power spectrum of the kinetic energy in the damped regime is consistent with a $k^{-4}$ scaling (in agreement with the predictions of Lazarian, Vishniac & Cho 2004).

References in corpus (41)

• Theory of Star Formation
• Interstellar Turbulence I: Observations and Processes
• Reconnection in a Weakly Stochastic Field
• Simulations of Incompressible MHD Turbulence
• Compressible Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence: mode coupling, scaling relations, anisotropy, new regime and astrophysical implications
• Gravitational Collapse in Turbulent Molecular Clouds. I. Gasdynamical Turbulence
• Simulations of MHD Turbulence in a Strongly Magnetized Medium
• Compressible MHD Turbulence in Interstellar Plasmas
• Second Order Accurate Schemes for Magnetohydrodynamics With Divergence-Free Reconstruction
• Multidimensional HLLE Riemann solver; Application to Euler and Magnetohydrodynamic Flows
• Magnetically Aligned HI Fibers and the Rolling Hough Transform
• Density Studies of MHD Interstellar Turbulence: Statistical Moments, Correlations and Bispectrum
• A Two-dimensional HLLC Riemann Solver for Conservation Laws : Application to Euler and MHD Flows
• Velocity Field of Compressible MHD Turbulence: Wavelet Decomposition and Mode Scalings
• Magnetic Field Structure and Stochastic Reconnection in a Partially Ionized Gas
• Enhancement and suppression of heat transfer by MHD turbulence
• Evidence for particle re-acceleration in the radio relic in the galaxy cluster PLCKG287.0 +32.9
• Density scaling and anisotropy in supersonic MHD turbulence
• Two-Fluid MHD Simulations of Converging HI Flows in the Interstellar Medium. I: Methodology and Basic Results
• Astrophysical hydromagnetic turbulence
• Testing Magnetic Star Formation Theory
• Velocity centroids as tracers of the turbulent velocity statistics
• Consistency of Ambipolar Diffusion Models with Infall in the L1544 Protostellar Core
• Ambipolar-Diffusion Timescale, Star-Formation Timescale, and the Ages of Molecular Clouds: Is There a Discrepancy?
• Probing the Turbulence Dissipation Range and Magnetic Field Strengths in Molecular Clouds
• Probing the Magnetic Field with Molecular Ion Spectra
• Sub-Alfvenic Non-Ideal MHD Turbulence Simulations with Ambipolar Diffusion: I. Turbulence Statistics
• Probing the Magnetic Field with Molecular ion Spectra. II
• The Inability of Ambipolar Diffusion to set a Characteristic Mass Scale in Molecular Clouds
• Measuring the Alfvenic Nature of the Interstellar Medium: Velocity Anisotropy Revisited
• Velocity Anisotropy as a Diagnostic of the Magnetization of the Interstellar Medium and Molecular clouds
• Observational Determination of the Turbulent Ambipolar Diffusion Scale and Magnetic Field Strength in Molecular Clouds
• Direct Evidence for Two-Fluid Effects in Molecular Clouds
• Simulations of Mixed Morphology Supernova Remnants With Anisotropic Thermal Conduction
• A Two-Fluid Method for Ambipolar Diffusion
• Simulating Anisotropic Thermal Conduction in Supernova Remnants, Implications for the Interstellar Medium
• Evidence for Doppler-Shifted Iron Emission Lines in Black Hole Candidate 4U 1630-47
• Opacity Broadening of ${}^{13}$CO Linewidths and its Effect on the Variance-Sonic Mach Number Relation
• Probing the Turbulent Ambipolar Diffusion Scale in Molecular Clouds with Spectroscopy
• Observational Diagnostics for Two-Fluid Turbulence in Molecular Clouds As Suggested by Simulations
• Anisotropic Thermal Conduction in Supernova Remnants: Relevance to Hot Gas Filling Factors in the Magnetized ISM

Cited by in corpus (31)

• A Unified Model for Galactic Discs: Star Formation, Turbulence Driving, and Mass Transport
• 3D Turbulent Reconnection: Theory, Tests and Astrophysical Implications
• Cosmic ray transport in starburst galaxies
• On the formation of density filaments in the turbulent interstellar medium
• Massive Outflows Driven by Magnetic Effects in Star Forming Clouds with High Mass Accretion Rates
• Extending Velocity Channel Analysis for Studying Turbulence Anisotropies
• The Anatomy of the Column Density Probability Distribution Function (N-PDF)
• Atomic and Ionized Microstructures in the Diffuse Interstellar Medium
• The FRIGG project: From intermediate galactic scales to self-gravitating cores
• The Multi-phase Turbulence Density Power Spectra in the Perseus Molecular Cloud
• The effect of ambipolar diffusion on low-density molecular ISM filaments
• TurbuStat: Turbulence Statistics in Python
• Linewidth Differences of Neutrals and Ions Induced by MHD Turbulence
• The Simons Observatory: Galactic Science Goals and Forecasts
• Neutral vs Ion Linewidths in Barnard 5: Evidence for Penetration by MHD Waves
• Winds in Star Clusters Drive Kolmogorov Turbulence
• Magnetic Field Orientation in Self-Gravitating Turbulent Molecular Clouds
• The interplay between feedback, accretion, transport and winds in setting gas-phase metal distribution in galaxies
• The driving scale -- density decorrelation scale relation in a turbulent medium
• Signatures of fast and slow magnetohydrodynamic shocks in turbulent molecular clouds
• The low redshift Lyman-$\alpha$ Forest as a constraint for models of AGN feedback
• Probing the Turbulence Dissipation Range and Magnetic Field Strengths in Molecular Clouds. II. Directly Probing the Ion-neutral Decoupling Scale
• Turbulent dynamo in a weakly ionized medium
• On the injection scale of the turbulence in the partially ionized very local interstellar medium
• On the propagation of Alfvén waves in the dusty interstellar medium. Can we neglect dust inertia in molecular clouds?
• Shocks and instabilities in the partially ionised solar atmosphere
• Probing the Physics of Star-Formation (ProPStar) III. No evidence for dissipation of turbulence down to 20 mpc (4 000 au) scale
• Length-scales and Dynamics of Carina's Western Wall
• JWST imaging of the Pleiades: anisotropy of turbulence in the cold neutral medium
• Thermal damping of Weak Magnetosonic Turbulence in the Interstellar Medium
• From Interstellar Clouds to Stars