Multi-fluid Simulation of Solar Chromospheric Turbulence and Heating Due to the Thermal Farley-Buneman Instability

Abstract

Models fail to reproduce observations of the coldest parts of the Sun's atmosphere, where interactions between multiple ionized and neutral species prevent an accurate MHD representation. This paper argues that a meter-scale electrostatic plasma instability develops in these regions and causes heating. We refer to this instability as the Thermal Farley-Buneman instability, or TFBI. Using parameters from a 2.5D radiative MHD Bifrost simulation, we show that the TFBI develops in many of the colder regions in the chromosphere. This paper also presents the first multi-fluid simulation of the TFBI and validates this new result by demonstrating close agreement with theory during the linear regime. The simulation eventually develops turbulence, and we characterize the resulting wave-driven heating, plasma transport, and random motions. These results all contend that effects of the TFBI contribute to the discrepancies between solar observations and radiative MHD models.

arXiv comment16 pages, 9 figures. Update: fix minor typos, minor grammar improvements, add citation for previously in-prep reference

References in corpus (23)

• The chemical composition of the Sun
• The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS)
• The stellar atmosphere simulation code Bifrost
• Does a Non-Magnetic Solar Chromosphere Exist?
• Numerical simulation of the three-dimensional structure and dynamics of the non-magnetic solar chromosphere
• Dynamic Hydrogen Ionization
• On the generation of solar spicules and Alfvénic waves
• Partially Ionized Plasmas in Astrophysics
• Non-equilibrium hydrogen ionization in 2D simulations of the solar atmosphere
• 2D Radiative MHD Simulations of the Importance of Partial Ionization in the Chromosphere
• Ionized Plasma and Neutral Gas Coupling in the Sun's Chromosphere and Earth's Ionosphere/Thermosphere
• Detailed and simplified non-equilibrium helium ionization in the solar atmosphere
• Mapping Solar Magnetic Fields from the Photosphere to the Base of the Corona
• Non-equilibrium helium ionization in an MHD simulation of the solar atmosphere
• Chromospheric Extension of the MURaM Code
• The Role of Partial Ionization Effects in the Chromosphere
• The Effects of Spatio-temporal Resolution on Deduced Spicule Properties
• Ambipolar diffusion in the Bifrost code
• Numerical simulations and observations of Mg II in the solar chromosphere
• ALMA and IRIS Observations of the Solar Chromosphere I: an On-Disk Type II Spicule
• On connecting the dynamics of the chromosphere and transition region with Hinode SOT and EIS
• The Multi-Species Farley-Buneman Instability in the Solar Chromosphere
• Chromospheric Heating from Local Magnetic Growth and Ambipolar Diffusion Under Non-Equilibrium Conditions