Surprises in astrophysical gasdynamics

Abstract

Much of astrophysics consists of the study of ionised gas under the influence of gravitational and magnetic fields. Thus, it is not possible to understand the astrophysical universe without a detailed knowledge of the dynamics of magnetised fluids. Fluid dynamics is, however, a notoriously tricky subject, in which it is all too easy for one's a priori intuition to go astray. In this review, we seek to guide the reader through a series of illuminating yet deceptive problems, all with an enlightening twist. We cover a broad range of topics including the instabilities acting in accretion discs, the hydrodynamics governing the convective zone of the Sun, the magnetic shielding of a cooling galaxy cluster, and the behaviour of thermal instabilities and evaporating clouds. The aim of this review is to surprise and intrigue even veteran astrophysical theorists with an idiosynchratic choice of problems and counterintuitive results. At the same time, we endeavour to bring forth the fundamental ideas, to set out important assumptions, and to describe carefully whatever novel techniques may be appropriate to the problem at hand. By beginning at the beginning, and analysing a wide variety of astrophysical settings, we seek not only to make this review suitable for fluid dynamic veterans, but to engage novice recruits as well with what we hope will be an unusual and instructive introduction to the subject.

arXiv comment68 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Rep. Prog. Phys

References in corpus (21)

• Hydrodynamic turbulence cannot transport angular momentum effectively in astrophysical disks
• Stability, Instability, and "Backwards'' Transport in Accretion Disks"
• Buoyancy Instabilities in Weakly Magnetized Low Collisionality Plasmas
• On the relevance of subcritical hydrodynamic turbulence to accretion disk transport
• Measurement of angular momentum transport in turbulent flow between independently rotating cylinders
• Convective and Rotational Stability of a Dilute Plasma
• Stability and angular-momentum transport of fluid flows between corotating cylinders
• Rossby wave instability at dead zone boundaries in 3D resistive magnetohydrodynamical global models of protoplanetary disks
• Energy Conservation and Gravity Waves in Sound-proof Treatments of Stellar Interiors: Part I Anelastic Approximations
• Saturation of the Magnetothermal Instability in Three Dimensions
• Buoyancy Instabilities in a Weakly Collisional Intracluster Medium
• Can conduction induce convection? The non-linear saturation of buoyancy instabilities in dilute plasmas
• Stability of quasi-Keplerian shear flow in a laboratory experiment
• On Differential Rotation and Convection in the Sun
• Global model of differential rotation in the Sun
• Dynamical stability of a thermally stratified intracluster medium with anisotropic momentum and heat transport
• The Dynamics of the Magnetoviscous Instability
• The stability of stratified, rotating systems and the generation of vorticity in the Sun
• The HBI in a quasi-global model of the intracluster medium
• The radiative zone of the Sun and the tachocline: stability of baroclinic patterns of differential rotation
• Differential rotation and radiative equilibrium in the Sun: is the tachocline spreading?

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Exploring the Physical Properties of the Cool Circumgalactic Medium with a Semi-Analytic Model
• Dynamical thermal instability in highly supersonic outflows
• Braginskii viscosity on an unstructured, moving mesh accelerated with super-time-stepping
• Short wavelength local instabilities of a circular Couette flow with radial temperature gradient
• The effect of rotation on the thermal instability of stratified galactic atmospheres - I. Local analysis
• The effect of rotation on the thermal instability of stratified galactic atmospheres - II. The formation of High Velocity Clouds
• Singular diffusionless limits of double-diffusive instabilities in magnetohydrodynamics
• On Helium Mixing in Quasi-global Simulations of the Intracluster Medium