Microphysical Plasma Relations from Special-relativistic Turbulence

Abstract

The microphysical, kinetic properties of astrophysical plasmas near accreting compact objects are still poorly understood. For instance, in modern general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations, the relation between the temperature of electrons $T_e$ and protons $T_p$ is prescribed in terms of simplified phenomenological models where the electron temperature is related to the proton temperature in terms of the ratio between the gas and magnetic pressures, or $\beta$ parameter. We here present a very comprehensive campaign of {two-dimensional} kinetic Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations of special-relativistic turbulence to investigate systematically the microphysical properties of the plasma in the trans-relativistic regime. Using a realistic mass ratio between electrons and protons, we analyze how the index of the electron energy distributions $\kappa$, the efficiency of nonthermal particle production $\mathcal{E}$, and the temperature ratio $\mathcal{T}:=T_e/T_p$, vary over a wide range of values of $\beta$ and $\sigma$. For each of these quantities, we provide two-dimensional fitting functions that describe their behaviour in the relevant space of parameters, thus connecting the microphysical properties of the plasma, $\kappa$, $\mathcal{E}$, and $\mathcal{T}$, with the macrophysical ones $\beta$ and $\sigma$. In this way, our results can find application in wide range of astrophysical scenarios, including the accretion and the jet emission onto supermassive black holes, such as M87* and Sgr A*.

arXiv comment13 pages, 8 figures. Accepted to be published in ApJ

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Cited by in corpus (15)

• Reconnection-driven flares in 3D black hole magnetospheres -- A scenario for hot spots around Sagittarius A*
• Formation and Evolution of Coherent Structures in 3D Strongly Turbulent Magnetized Plasmas
• Self-consistent multidimensional Penrose process driven by magnetic reconnection
• Impacts of nonthermal emission on the images of a black hole shadow and extended jets in two-temperature GRMHD simulations
• Impact of anisotropic ejecta on jet dynamics and afterglow emission in binary neutron-star mergers
• Turbulence and Magnetic Reconnection in Relativistic Multispecies Plasmas
• Energy Diffusion and Advection Coefficients in Kinetic Simulations of Relativistic Plasma Turbulence
• Scale Statistics of Current Sheets in Relativistic Collisionless Plasma Turbulence
• Jet Archaeology and Forecasting: Image Variability and Magnetic Field Configuration
• Measuring the properties of homogeneous turbulence in curved spacetimes
• Nonthermal hotspot orbiting the supermassive black hole Sgr A*
• The Role of Inhomogeneities in the Turbulent Accretion of Black Holes
• Impacts of radiative cooling on the images of a black hole shadow and extended jets in two-temperature GRMHD simulations
• FPIC: a new Particle-In-Cell code for stationary and axisymmetric black-hole spacetimes
• Modeling the shadow of Sgr A* through an eclipsing black hole