Diagnosis of 3D magnetic field and modes composition in MHD turbulence with Y-parameter [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.17282


Magnetic field is ubiquitous in interstellar media and channels turbulent flow from kilo-parsec to sub-parsec scales in both diffuse ISM and molecular clouds. The determination of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence and 3D magnetic field properties in ISM is notoriously difficult. In this study, we establish a statistical recipe `Y-parameter’ based on the recent development of turbulence statistical theory, namely the turbulence anisotropy analysis, to reconstruct 3D magnetic fields in MHD simulations and understand the mode-decomposition of MHD turbulence. In our analysis, we used 25 MHD turbulence datacubes simulated using ZEUS-MP and Athena++ codes. We found that the anisotropy of Stokes parameters can act as a diagnostic for retrieving the magnetic field inclination in ISM and identifying dominating mode. It is supported by the value space separation of the Y-parameter for decomposed Alfvenic and compressible MHD cubes and which is decreasing and increasing with mean field inclination angle, $\theta_{\lambda}$, respectively. In the total cube analysis, Y$\sim 1.5$ (with Y$>1.5$ for A-mode and Y$<1.5$ for C-mode) provides a statistical demarcation to obtain the dominant fraction of MHD turbulence modes. Furthermore, we have found that the (i) if Y$\gtrsim 2.5$, $10^\circ<\theta_{\lambda}< 30^\circ$ and A mode or $5^\circ<\theta_{\lambda}< 10^\circ$ and C-mode (ii) if Y$ \lesssim 1.0 $, $\theta_{\lambda} \lesssim 5^\circ$ and C-mode or $\theta_{\lambda} \gtrsim 60^\circ$ and A-mode (iii) $40^\circ \lesssim \theta_{\lambda} \lesssim 60^\circ$ with A-mode or $\theta_{\lambda} \gtrsim 70^\circ$ with C-mode, if Y-parameter is in the intermediate range. As a consequence, in the future with the availability of vast radio polarisation surveys, this technique can play a leading role in detecting 3D magnetic field in ISM and characterizing the nature of the interstellar turbulence.

Read this paper on arXiv…

S. Malik, K. Yuen and H. Yan
Fri, 31 Mar 23
51/70

Comments: 12 pages, 9 figures, 1 table