Tag Archives: Fluid Dynamics

Provably convergent Newton-Raphson methods for recovering primitive variables with applications to physical-constraint-preserving Hermite WENO schemes for relativistic hydrodynamics [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.14805


The relativistic hydrodynamics (RHD) equations have three crucial intrinsic physical constraints on the primitive variables: positivity of pressure and density, and subluminal fluid velocity. However, numerical simulations can violate these constraints, leading to nonphysical results or even simulation failure. Designing genuinely physical-constraint-preserving (PCP) schemes is very difficult, as the primitive variables cannot be explicitly reformulated using conservative variables due to relativistic effects. In this paper, we propose three efficient Newton–Raphson (NR) methods for robustly recovering primitive variables from conservative variables. Importantly, we rigorously prove that these NR methods are always convergent and PCP, meaning they preserve the physical constraints throughout the NR iterations. The discovery of these robust NR methods and their PCP convergence analyses are highly nontrivial and technical. As an application, we apply the proposed NR methods to design PCP finite volume Hermite weighted essentially non-oscillatory (HWENO) schemes for solving the RHD equations. Our PCP HWENO schemes incorporate high-order HWENO reconstruction, a PCP limiter, and strong-stability-preserving time discretization. We rigorously prove the PCP property of the fully discrete schemes using convex decomposition techniques. Moreover, we suggest the characteristic decomposition with rescaled eigenvectors and scale-invariant nonlinear weights to enhance the performance of the HWENO schemes in simulating large-scale RHD problems. Several demanding numerical tests are conducted to demonstrate the robustness, accuracy, and high resolution of the proposed PCP HWENO schemes and to validate the efficiency of our NR methods.

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C. Cai, J. Qiu and K. Wu
Thu, 25 May 23
64/64

Comments: 49 pages

Halo formation and evolution in SFDM and CDM: new insights from the fluid approach [GA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.12982


(abridged) We present simulations of halo formation and evolution in scalar field dark matter (SFDM) cosmologies in the Thomas-Fermi regime, aka SFDM-TF", where a strong repulsive 2-particle self-interaction (SI) is included, being a valuable alternative to CDM, with the potential to resolve itscusp-core” problem. In general, SFDM behaves like a quantum fluid. Previous literature has presented two fluid approximations for SFDM-TF, as well as simulations of halo formation. These results confirmed earlier expectations and are generally in mutual agreement, but discrepancies were also reported. Therefore, we perform dedicated 3D cosmological simulations for the SFDM-TF model, applying both fluid approximations, as well as for CDM. Our results are very well in accordance with previous works and extend upon them, in that we can explain the reported discrepancies as a result of different simulation setups. We find some interesting details: The evolution of both SFDM-TF and CDM halos follows a 2-stage process. In the early stage, the density profile in the center becomes close to a $(n=1.5)$-polytropic core, dominated by an “effective” velocity-dispersion pressure $P_{\sigma}$ which is common to both dark matter models. Consecutively, for CDM halos, the core transitions into a central cusp. In SFDM-TF halos, the additional pressure $P_\text{SI}$ due to SI determines the second stage of the evolution, where the central region follows closely a $(n=1)$-polytropic core, embedded in a nearly isothermal envelope, i.e. the outskirts are similar to CDM. We also encounter a new effect, namely a late-time expansion of both polytropic core plus envelope, because the size of the almost isothermal halo envelope is affected by the expansion of the background universe. So, an initial primordial core of $\sim 100$ pc can evolve into a larger core of $\gtrsim 1$ kpc, even without feedback from baryons.

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H. Foidl, T. Rindler-Daller and W. Zeilinger
Tue, 23 May 23
77/77

Comments: submitted to Phys.Rev.D; 26 pages, 16 figures

Rotation reduces convective mixing in Jupiter and other gas giants [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.09921


Recent measurements of Jupiter’s gravitational moments by the Juno spacecraft and seismology of Saturn’s rings suggest that the primordial composition gradients in the deep interior of these planets have persisted since their formation. One possible explanation is the presence of a double-diffusive staircase below the planet’s outer convection zone, which inhibits mixing across the deeper layers. However, hydrodynamic simulations have shown that these staircases are not long-lasting and can be disrupted by overshooting convection. In this paper we suggests that planetary rotation could be another factor for the longevity of primordial composition gradients. Using rotational mixing-length theory and 3D hydrodynamic simulations, we demonstrate that rotation significantly reduces both the convective velocity and the mixing of primordial composition gradients. In particular, for Jovian conditions at $t\sim10^{8}~\mathrm{yrs}$ after formation, rotation reduces the convective velocity by a factor of 6, and in turn, the kinetic energy flux available for mixing gets reduced by a factor of $6^3\sim 200$. This leads to an entrainment timescale that is more than two orders of magnitude longer than without rotation. We encourage future hydrodynamic models of Jupiter and other gas giants to include rapid rotation, because the decrease in the mixing efficiency could explain why Jupiter and Saturn are not fully mixed.

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J. Fuentes, E. Anders, A. Cumming, et. al.
Thu, 18 May 23
66/67

Comments: Submitted to AAS Journals

A well-balanced and exactly divergence-free staggered semi-implicit hybrid finite volume/finite element scheme for the incompressible MHD equations [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06497


We present a new divergence-free and well-balanced hybrid FV/FE scheme for the incompressible viscous and resistive MHD equations on unstructured mixed-element meshes in 2 and 3 space dimensions. The equations are split into subsystems. The pressure is defined on the vertices of the primary mesh, while the velocity field and the normal components of the magnetic field are defined on an edge-based/face-based dual mesh in two and three space dimensions, respectively. This allows to account for the divergence-free conditions of the velocity field and of the magnetic field in a rather natural manner. The non-linear convective and the viscous terms are solved at the aid of an explicit FV scheme, while the magnetic field is evolved in a divergence-free manner via an explicit FV method based on a discrete form of the Stokes law in the edges/faces of each primary element. To achieve higher order of accuracy, a pw-linear polynomial is reconstructed for the magnetic field, which is guaranteed to be divergence-free via a constrained L2 projection. The pressure subsystem is solved implicitly at the aid of a classical continuous FE method in the vertices of the primary mesh. In order to maintain non-trivial stationary equilibrium solutions of the governing PDE system exactly, which are assumed to be known a priori, each step of the new algorithm takes the known equilibrium solution explicitly into account so that the method becomes exactly well-balanced. This paper includes a very thorough study of the lid-driven MHD cavity problem in the presence of different magnetic fields. We finally present long-time simulations of Soloviev equilibrium solutions in several simplified 3D tokamak configurations even on very coarse unstructured meshes that, in general, do not need to be aligned with the magnetic field lines.

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F. Fambri, E. Zampa, S. Busto, et. al.
Fri, 12 May 23
6/53

Comments: 57 pages, 33 figures, 13 tables, reference-data (supplementary electronic material) will be available after publication on the Journal web-page

Magnetic Field Line Separation by Random Ballistic Decorrelation in Transverse Magnetic Turbulence [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.14067


The statistics of the magnetic field line separation provide insight into how a bundle of field lines spreads out and the dispersion of non-thermal particles in a turbulent environment, which underlies various astrophysical phenomena. Its diffusive character depends on the distance along the field line, the initial separation, and the characteristics of the magnetic turbulence. This work considers the separation of two magnetic field lines in general transverse turbulence in terms of the magnetic power spectrum in three-dimensional wavenumber space. We apply non-perturbative methods using Corrsin’s hypothesis and assume random ballistic decorrelation to calculate the ensemble average field line separation for general transverse magnetic turbulence. For 2D+slab power spectra, our analytic formulae and computer simulations give similar results, especially at low slab fraction. Our analytical expression also demonstrates several features of field line separation that are verified by computer simulations.

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C. Yannawa, P. Pongkitiwanichakul, D. Ruffolo, et. al.
Fri, 28 Apr 23
9/68

Comments: N/A

Local magneto-shear instability in Newtonian gravity [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.13486


The magneto-rotational instability (MRI) – which is due to an interplay between a sheared background and the magnetic field – is commonly considered a key ingredient for developing and sustaining turbulence in the outer envelope of binary neutron star merger remnants. To assess whether (or not) the instability is active and resolved, criteria originally derived in the accretion disk literature – thus exploiting the symmetries of such systems – are often used. In this paper we discuss the magneto-shear instability as a truly local phenomenon, relaxing common symmetry assumptions on the background on top of which the instability grows. This makes the discussion well-suited for highly dynamical environments such as binary mergers. We find that – although this is somewhat hidden in the usual derivation of the MRI dispersion relation – the instability crucially depends on the assumed symmetries. Relaxing the symmetry assumptions on the background we find that the role of the magnetic field is significantly diminished, as it affects the modes’ growth but does not drive it. This suggests that we should not expect the standard instability criteria to provide a faithful indication/diagnostic of what “is actually going on” in mergers. We conclude by making contact with a suitable filtering operation, as this is key to separating background and fluctuations in highly dynamical systems.

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T. Celora, I. Hawke, N. Andersson, et. al.
Thu, 27 Apr 23
24/78

Comments: 15 pages, 1 figure

Vorticity and magnetic dynamo from subsonic expansion waves [GA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.11929


This work concentrates on the effect of an irrotational forcing on a magnetized flow in the presence of rotation, baroclinicity, shear, or a combination of them. By including magnetic field in the model we can evaluate the occurrence of dynamo on both small and large scales. We aim at finding what are the minimum ingredients needed to trigger a dynamo instability and what is the relation between dynamo and the growth of vorticity.
We use the Pencil code to run resistive MHD direct numerical simulations. We report no dynamo in all cases where only rotation is included, regardless on the equation of state. Conversely, the inclusion of a background sinusoidal shearing profile leads to an hydrodynamic instability that produces an exponential growth of the vorticity at all scales, starting from small ones. This is know as vorticity dynamo. The onset of this instability occurs after a rather long temporal evolution of several thousand turbulent turnover times. The vorticity dynamo in turn drives an exponential growth of the magnetic field, first at small scales, then also at large one. The instability then saturates and the magnetic field approximately reaches equipartition with the turbulent kinetic energy. During the saturation phase we can observe a winding of the magnetic field in the direction of the shearing flow. By varying the intensity of the shear we see that the growth rates of this instability change. The inclusion of the baroclinic term delays the onset of the vorticity dynamo but leads to a more rapid growth.
We demonstrate how in the presence of shear, even a purely irrotational forcing amplifies the field to equipartition. At the same time, we confirm how this forcing alone does not lead to vorticity nor magnetic field growth, and this picture does not change in the presence of rotation or baroclinicity up to $256^3$ meshpoints.

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A. Elias-López, F. Sordo and D. Viganò
Tue, 25 Apr 23
32/72

Comments: 14 pages, 8 figures, submitted for publication, comments welcome

Tidal dissipation in stratified and semi-convective regions of giant planets [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.11898


We study how stably stratified or semi-convective layers alter the tidal dissipation rates associated with the generation of internal waves in planetary interiors. We consider if these layers could contribute to the high rates of tidal dissipation observed for Jupiter and Saturn in our solar system. We use an idealised global spherical Boussinesq model to study the influence of stable stratification and semi-convective layers on tidal dissipation rates. We carry out analytical and numerical calculations considering realistic tidal forcing and measure how the viscous and thermal dissipation rates depend on the parameters relating to the internal stratification profile. We find that the strongly frequency-dependent tidal dissipation rate is highly dependent on the parameters relating to the stable stratification, with strong resonant peaks that align with the internal modes of the system. The locations and sizes of these resonances depend on the form and parameters of the stratification, which we explore both analytically and numerically. Our results suggest that stable stratification can significantly enhance the tidal dissipation in particular frequency ranges. Analytical calculations in the low frequency regime give us scaling laws for the key parameters, including the tidal quality factor $Q’$ due to internal gravity waves. Stably stratified layers can significantly contribute to tidal dissipation in solar and extrasolar giant planets, and we estimate substantial tidal evolution for hot Neptunes. Further investigation is needed to robustly quantify the significance of the contribution in realistic interior models, and to consider the contribution of inertial waves.

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C. Pontin, A. Barker and R. Hollerbach
Tue, 25 Apr 23
40/72

Comments: 29 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ (13th April 2023)

Jupiter's cloud-level variability triggered by torsional oscillations in the interior [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.04460


Jupiter’s weather layer exhibits long-term and quasi-periodic cycles of meteorological activity that can completely change the appearance of its belts and zones. There are cycles with intervals from 4 to 9 years, dependent on the latitude, which were detected in 5$\mu$m radiation, which provides a window into the cloud-forming regions of the troposphere; however, the origin of these cycles has been a mystery. Here we propose that magnetic torsional oscillations/waves arising from the dynamo region could modulate the heat transport and hence be ultimately responsible for the variability of the tropospheric banding. These axisymmetric waves are magnetohydrodynamic waves influenced by the rapid rotation, which have been detected in Earth’s core, and have been recently suggested to exist in Jupiter by the observation of magnetic secular variations by Juno. Using the magnetic field model JRM33, together with the density distribution model, we compute the expected speed of these waves. For the waves excited by variations in the zonal jet flows, their wavelength can be estimated from the width of the alternating jets, yielding waves with a half period of 3.2-4.7 years in 14-23$^\circ$N, consistent with the intervals with the cycles of variability of Jupiter’s North Equatorial Belt and North Temperate Belt identified in the visible and infrared observations. The nature of these waves, including the wave speed and the wavelength, is revealed by a data-driven technique, dynamic mode decomposition, applied to the spatio-temporal data for 5$\mu$m emission. Our results imply that exploration of these magnetohydrodynamic waves may provide a new window to the origins of quasi-periodic patterns in Jupiter’s tropospheric clouds and to the internal dynamics and the dynamo of Jupiter.

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K. Hori, C. Jones, A. Antuñano, et. al.
Tue, 11 Apr 23
50/63

Comments: N/A

Modeling meteorite craters by impacting melted tin on sand [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.18016


To simulate the heated exterior of a meteorite, we impact a granular bed with melted tin. The morphology of tin remnant and crater is found to be sensitive to the temperature and solidification of tin. By employing deep learning and convolutional neural network, we can quantify and map the complex impact patterns onto network systems based on feature maps and Grad-CAM results. This gives us unprecedented details on how the projectile deforms and interacts with the granules, which information can be used to trace the development of different remnant shapes. Furthermore, full dynamics of granular system is revealed by the use of Particle Image Velocimetry. Kinetic energy, temperature and diameter of the projectile are used to build phase diagrams for the morphology of both crater and tin remnant. In addition to successfully reproducing key features of simple and complex craters, we are able to detect a possible artifact when compiling crater data from field studies. The depth of craters from high-energy impacts in our work is found to be independent of their width. However, when mixing data from different energy, temperature and diameter of projectile, a bogus power-law relationship appears between them. Like other controlled laboratory researches, our conclusions have the potential to benefit the study of paint in industry and asteroid sampling missions on the surface of celestial bodies.

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H. Huang, P. Tsai, C. Lu, et. al.
Mon, 3 Apr 23
44/53

Comments: 6 pages, 5 figures

Gravitational polarization of test-mass potential in equilibrium polytropic sheets with non-negative polytropic indexes [GA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.14876


Gravitational polarization is examined for equilibrium self-gravitating polytropic sheets perturbed by gravitational field due to test mass sheet. We find equilibrium solutions to the corresponding perturbed Lane-Emden equations for non-negative polytropic indexes. It is shown that gravitational polarization may be observed even in a finite extent of self-gravitating systems in addition to previously discussed infinite systems. In the polytropic sheets, the maximum gravitational amplification gets greater with a higher polytropic index while the height at which the maximum amplification occurs gets lower. The ratio of height change to the original height increases with polytropic index. The last result constrains the linear approximation method used for the present perturbation method.

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Y. Ito
Tue, 28 Mar 23
78/81

Comments: N/A

Convective boundary mixing in main-sequence stars: theory and empirical constraints [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.12099


The convective envelopes of solar-type stars and the convective cores of intermediate- and high-mass stars share boundaries with stable radiative zones. Through a host of processes we collectively refer to as “convective boundary mixing” (CBM), convection can drive efficient mixing in these nominally stable regions. In this review, we discuss the current state of CBM research in the context of main-sequence stars through three lenses. (1) We examine the most frequently implemented 1D prescriptions of CBM — exponential overshoot, step overshoot, and convective penetration — and we include a discussion of implementation degeneracies and how to convert between various prescriptions. (2) Next, we examine the literature of CBM from a fluid dynamical perspective, with a focus on three distinct processes: convective overshoot, entrainment, and convective penetration. (3) Finally, we discuss observational inferences regarding how much mixing should occur in the cores of intermediate- and high-mass stars, and the implied constraints that these observations place on 1D CBM implementations. We conclude with a discussion of pathways forward for future studies to place better constraints on this difficult challenge in stellar evolution modeling.

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E. Anders and M. Pedersen
Thu, 23 Mar 23
39/67

Comments: Accepted for publication as an invited review in the Galaxies special issue, “The Structure and Evolution of Stars” (see this https URL). Supplementary materials including MESA inlists and collected data used to generate some figures can be found online in a Zenodo repository at this https URL

Lagrangian statistics of a shock-driven turbulent dynamo in decaying turbulence [GA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.06033


Small-scale fluctuating magnetic fields of order $n$G to $\mu$G are observed in supernova shocks and galaxy clusters, where amplifications of the field are likely caused by the Biermann battery mechanism. However, these fields cannot be amplified further without the turbulent dynamo, which generates magnetic energy through the stretch-twist-fold (STF) mechanism. Thus, we present here novel three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of a laser-driven shock propagating into a stratified, multiphase medium, to investigate the post-shock turbulent magnetic field amplification via the turbulent dynamo. The configuration used here is currently being tested in the shock tunnel at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). In order to probe the statistical properties of the post-shock turbulent region, we use $384 \times 512 \times 384$ tracer trajectories to track its evolution through the Lagrangian framework, thus providing a high-fidelity analysis of the shocked medium. Our simulations indicate that the growth of the magnetic field, which accompanies the near-Saffman power-law kinetic energy decay ($E_{\textrm{kin}} \propto t^{-1.15})$ in the absence of turbulence driving, exhibits slightly different characteristics as compared to periodic box simulations. Seemingly no distinct phases exist in its evolution, because the shock passage and time to observe the magnetic field amplification during the turbulence decay are very short, with only $\sim0.3$ of a turbulent turnover time. Yet, the growth rates are still consistent with those expected for compressive (curl-free) turbulence driving in subsonic, compressible turbulence. Phenomenological understanding of the dynamics of the magnetic and velocity fields are also elucidated via Lagrangian frequency spectra, which are consistent with the expected inertial range scalings via the Eulerian-Lagrangian bridge.

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J. Hew and C. Federrath
Wed, 18 Jan 23
107/133

Comments: 14 pages, 19 figures. Submitted to MNRAS. Comments are welcome

Shear-driven magnetic buoyancy in the solar tachocline: The mean electromotive force due to rotation [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.05067


The leading theoretical paradigm for the Sun’s magnetic cycle is an $\alpha\omega$-dynamo process, in which a combination of differential rotation and turbulent, helical flows produces a large-scale magnetic field that reverses every 11 years. Most $\alpha\omega$ solar dynamo models rely on differential rotation in the solar tachocline to generate a strong toroidal field. The most problematic part of such models is then the production of the large-scale poloidal field, via a process known as the $\alpha$-effect. Whilst this is usually attributed to small-scale convective motions under the influence of rotation, the efficiency of this regenerative process has been called into question by some numerical simulations. Motivated by likely conditions within the tachocline, the aim of this paper is to investigate an alternative mechanism for the poloidal field regeneration, namely the magnetic buoyancy instability in a shear-generated, rotating magnetic layer. We use a local, fully compressible model in which an imposed vertical shear winds up an initially vertical magnetic field. The field ultimately becomes buoyantly unstable, and we measure the resulting mean electromotive force (EMF). For sufficiently rapid rotation, we find that a significant component of the mean EMF is aligned with the direction of the mean magnetic field, which is the characteristic feature of the classical $\alpha\omega$-dynamo model. Our results therefore suggest that magnetic buoyancy could contribute directly to the generation of large-scale poloidal field in the Sun.

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C. Duguid, P. Bushby and T. Wood
Fri, 13 Jan 23
43/72

Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 16 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables

Coupling multi-fluid dynamics equipped with Landau closures to the particle-in-cell method [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04679


The particle-in-cell (PIC) method is successfully used to study magnetized plasmas. However, this requires large computational costs and limits simulations to short physical run-times and often to setups in less than three spatial dimensions. Traditionally, this is circumvented either via hybrid-PIC methods (adopting massless electrons) or via magneto-hydrodynamic-PIC methods (modelling the background plasma as a single charge-neutral magneto-hydrodynamical fluid). Because both methods preclude modelling important plasma-kinetic effects, we introduce a new fluid-PIC code that couples a fully explicit and charge-conservative multi-fluid solver to the PIC code SHARP through a current-coupling scheme and solve the full set of Maxwell’s equations. This avoids simplifications typically adopted for Ohm’s Law and enables us to fully resolve the electron temporal and spatial scales while retaining the versatility of initializing any number of ion, electron, or neutral species with arbitrary velocity distributions. The fluid solver includes closures emulating Landau damping so that we can account for this important kinetic process in our fluid species. Our fluid-PIC code is second-order accurate in space and time. The code is successfully validated against several test problems, including the stability and accuracy of shocks and the dispersion relation and damping rates of waves in unmagnetized and magnetized plasmas. It also matches growth rates and saturation levels of the gyro-scale and intermediate-scale instabilities driven by drifting charged particles in magnetized thermal background plasmas in comparison to linear theory and PIC simulations. This new fluid-SHARP code is specially designed for studying high-energy cosmic rays interacting with thermal plasmas over macroscopic timescales.

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R. Lemmerz, M. Shalaby, T. Thomas, et. al.
Fri, 13 Jan 23
67/72

Comments: 17 pages, 11 figures, submitted to MNRAS. Comments are welcome

Heat transport and convective velocities in compositionally-driven convection in neutron star and white dwarf interiors [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04273


We investigate heat transport associated with compositionally-driven convection driven by crystallization at the ocean-crust interface in accreting neutron stars, or growth of the solid core in cooling white dwarfs. We study the effect of thermal diffusion and rapid rotation on the convective heat transport, using both mixing length theory and numerical simulations of Boussinesq convection. We determine the heat flux, composition gradient and P\’eclet number (the ratio of thermal diffusion time to convective turnover time) as a function of the composition flux. We find that the ratio between the heat flux and composition flux is independent of P\’eclet number, because the loss of heat from convecting fluid elements due to thermal diffusion is offset by the smaller composition gradient needed to overcome the reduced thermal buoyancy. We find two regimes of convection with a rapid transition between them as the composition flux increases. We discuss the implications for neutron star and white dwarf cooling. Convection in neutron stars spans both regimes. We find rapid mixing of neutron star oceans, with a convective turnover time of order weeks to minutes depending on rotation. Except during the early stages of core crystallization, white dwarf convection is in the thermal-diffusion-dominated fingering regime. We find convective velocities much smaller than recent estimates for crystallization-driven dynamos. The small fraction of energy carried as kinetic energy calls into question the effectiveness of crystallization-driven dynamos as an explanation for observed white dwarf magnetic fields.

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J. Fuentes, A. Cumming, M. Castro-Tapia, et. al.
Thu, 12 Jan 23
23/68

Comments: Submitted to ApJ. Comments are welcome

The Cosmological Simulation Code OpenGadget3 — Implementation of Meshless Finite Mass [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.03612


Subsonic turbulence plays a major role in determining properties of the intra cluster medium (ICM). We introduce a new Meshless Finite Mass (MFM) implementation in OpenGadget3 and apply it to this specific problem. To this end, we present a set of test cases to validate our implementation of the MFM framework in our code. These include but are not limited to: the soundwave and Kepler disk as smooth situations to probe the stability, a Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz instability as popular mixing instabilities, a blob test as more complex example including both mixing and shocks, shock tubes with various Mach numbers, a Sedov blast wave, different tests including self-gravity such as gravitational freefall, a hydrostatic sphere, the Zeldovich-pancake, and the nifty cluster as cosmological application. Advantages over SPH include increased mixing and a better convergence behavior. We demonstrate that the MFM-solver is robust, also in a cosmological context. We show evidence that the solver preforms extraordinarily well when applied to decaying subsonic turbulence, a problem very difficult to handle for many methods. MFM captures the expected velocity power spectrum with high accuracy and shows a good convergence behavior. Using MFM or SPH within OpenGadget3 leads to a comparable decay in turbulent energy due to numerical dissipation. When studying the energy decay for different initial turbulent energy fractions, we find that MFM performs well down to Mach numbers $\mathcal{M}\approx 0.007$. Finally, we show how important the slope limiter and the energy-entropy switch are to control the behavior and the evolution of the fluids.

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F. Groth, U. Steinwandel, M. Valentini, et. al.
Wed, 11 Jan 23
68/80

Comments: 27 pages, 24 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Saturn's Magnetic Field at Unprecedented Detail Achieved by Cassini's Close Encounters [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.02756


The last 22.5 orbits of the Cassini mission brought the spacecraft to less than 3000 km from Saturn’s 1-bar surface. These close encounters offered an unprecedented view of Saturn’s magnetic field, including contributions from the internal dynamo, the ionosphere, and the magnetosphere. In this chapter, we highlight the new picture of Saturn’s magnetic field from the Cassini mission including the persistent yet time-varying low-latitude field-aligned currents, Alfv\’en waves planet-ward of the D-ring, extreme axisymmetry, and high-degree magnetic moments. We then discuss the implications and new questions raised for Saturn’s innermost magnetosphere, equatorial ionosphere, and interior. We conclude this chapter with an outlook for the future exploration of Saturn and other giant planets.

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H. Cao, M. Dougherty, G. Hunt, et. al.
Tue, 10 Jan 23
43/93

Comments: Peer reviewed and accepted for publication as Chapter 5 of a multi-volume work edited by Kevin Baines, Michael Flasar, Norbert Krupp, and Thomas Stallard, entitled Cassini at Saturn: The Grand Finale, to be published by Cambridge University Press. 15 pages, 10 figures

Turbulent Drag Reduction in Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence and Dynamo from Energy Flux Perspectives [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.01281


In this review, we describe turbulent drag reduction in a variety of flows using a universal framework of energy flux. In a turbulent flow with dilute polymers and magnetic field, the kinetic energy injected at large scales cascades to the velocity field at intermediate scales, as well as to the polymers and magnetic field at all scales. Consequently, the kinetic energy flux, $ \Pi_u(k) $, is suppressed in comparison to the pure hydrodynamic turbulence. We argue that the suppression of $\Pi_u(k)$ is an important factor in the reduction of the inertial force $\langle {\bf u \cdot \nabla u} \rangle$ and \textit{turbulent drag}. This feature of turbulent drag reduction is observed in polymeric, magnetohydrodynamic, quasi-static magnetohydrodynamic, and stably-stratified turbulence, and in dynamos. In addition, it is shown that turbulent drag reduction in thermal convection is due to the smooth thermal plates, similar to the turbulent drag reduction over bluff bodies. In all these flows, turbulent drag reduction often leads to a strong large-scale velocity in the flow.

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M. Verma, M. Sharma and S. Chatterjee
Wed, 4 Jan 23
40/43

Comments: 52 pages, submitted to Reviews of Modern Plasma Physics

New description of the scaling evolution of the cosmological magneto-hydrodynamic system [CEA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.14355


We present a new description of cosmological evolution of the primordial magnetic field under the condition that it is non-helical and its energy density is larger than the kinetic energy density. We argue that the evolution can be described by four different regimes, according to whether the decay dynamics is linear or not, and whether the dominant dissipation term is the shear viscosity or the drag force. Using this classification and conservation of the Hosking integral, we present analytic models to adequately interpret the results of various numerical simulations of field evolution with variety of initial conditions. It is found that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, the decay of the field is generally slow, exhibiting the inverse transfer, because of the conservation of the Hosking integral. Using the description proposed here, we may trace the intermediate evolution history of the magnetic field and clarify whether each process governing its evolution is frozen or not, which is essential to follow the evolution of relatively weak magnetic fields.

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F. Uchida, M. Fujiwara, K. Kamada, et. al.
Mon, 2 Jan 23
16/44

Comments: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

Design of Chemical Propellant Thruster to Deorbit Nano satellite: StudSat II [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.11992


An increase in satellite application has skyrocketed the number of satellites, especially in the low earth orbit (LEO). The major concern today is that these satellites become debris after the end of life, negatively affecting the space environment. As per the International Guidelines of the European Space Agency, it is mandatory to deorbit the satellite within 25 years of its end of life. This paper is aimed to design the solid chemical propellant thruster to deorbit the StudSat II from its original orbit to the lower orbit. StudSat II carries the heritage of StudSat I, successfully launched on 12th July 2010 AD, and is the first Pico Satellite in India by the undergraduate students of seven engineering colleges. This paper explains how a solid monopropellant thruster could be used to deorbit the satellite after the end of life with the least difficulty compared to other active and passive methods of deorbiting. The deorbiting mechanism consists of a solid propellant, Convergent Divergent nozzle, ignition system, and electronic actuators. The components of the thruster were designed in the CATIA V5, and the combustion studies and flow analysis were done in ANSYS. The concept of Hohmann transfer was used to deorbit the satellite, and STK was used to simulate it.

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P. Sherpaili, R. Sah, S. Hegde, et. al.
Mon, 26 Dec 22
31/39

Comments: 8 papers, 17 figures, Presented and Published at Proceedings of the XVII Vibration Engineering & Technology of Machinery Conference(VETOMAC),Dec. 15-17, 2022, DMAE, IOE, Pulchowk, Nepal

On turbulent viscosity in relativistic jets and accretion disks [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.12512


The mechanism of turbulent viscosity is the central question in investigations of turbulence. This is also the case in the accretion disk theory, where turbulence is considered to be responsible for the outward transport of angular momentum in the accretion disk. In turbulent flows, vortices transport momentum over their length scales providing the mechanism of viscosity that is controlled by mass entrainment. We have earlier proposed an entrainment model for the particular case of the relativistic jets in the radio galaxy 3C31. In this paper, we further constrain the model parameters. The model (in the non-relativistic part) is successfully tested versus experimental and simulation data on the Reynolds stresses of free mixing layers and predicts the Smagorinsky constant $C_\mathrm{S} \approx 0.11$, which is consistent with the experimental range for shear flows $C_\mathrm{S} \approx 0.1-0.12$. For accretion disks, the entrainment model allows us to derive the same accretion mass rate as in the Shakura \& Sunyaev’s $\alpha$-model without appealing to the turbulent kinematic viscosity $\nu_\mathrm{t}$, and the viscosity parameter $\alpha$ derived in the form $\displaystyle \alpha = -\frac{8}{3} \beta s_\mathrm{T} \frac{\mathrm{v_t}^2}{c_\mathrm{s}^2}$ depends on the power $s_\mathrm{T}$ of the temperature slope along the disk radius, $T\propto r^{s_\mathrm{T}}$, and quadratically on the turbulent velocity $\mathrm{v_t}$.

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A. Panferov
Mon, 26 Dec 22
36/39

Comments: 8 pages, 2 figures; presented at the conference The Multifaceted Universe: Theory and Observations – 2022, 23-27 May 2022, SAO RAS, Nizhny Arkhyz, Russia; published in PoS, December 14, 2022, at this https URL

Towards an effective action for chiral magnetohydrodynamics [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.09787


We consider chiral magnetohydrodynamics, i.e. a finite-temperature system where an axial $U(1)$ current is not conserved due to an Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly saturated by the dynamical operator $F_{\mu\nu} \tilde{F}^{\mu\nu}$. We express this anomaly in terms of the 1-form symmetry associated with magnetic flux conservation and study its realization at finite temperature. We present Euclidean generating functional and dissipative action approaches to the dynamics and reproduce some aspects of chiral MHD phenomenology from an effective theory viewpoint, including the chiral separation and magnetic effects. We also discuss the construction of non-invertible axial symmetry defect operators in our formalism.

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A. Das, N. Iqbal and N. Poovuttikul
Wed, 21 Dec 22
73/81

Comments: revtex, 29+6 pages

Taylor-Couette flow for astrophysical purposes [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.08741


A concise review is given of astrophysically motivated experimental and theoretical research on Taylor-Couette flow. The flows of interest rotate differentially with inner cylinder faster than outer one but are linearly stable against Rayleigh’s inviscid centrifugal instability. At shear Reynolds numbers as large as 10^6, hydrodynamic flows of this type (quasi-keplerian) appear to be nonlinearly stable: no turbulence is seen that cannot be attributed to interaction with the axial boundaries, rather than the radial shear itself. Direct numerical simulations agree, although they cannot yet reach such high Reynolds numbers. This result indicates that accretion-disc turbulence is not purely hydrodynamic in origin, at least insofar as it is driven by radial shear. Theory, however, predicts linear magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities in astrophysical discs: in particular, the standard magnetorotational instability (SMRI). MHD Taylor-Couette experiments aimed at SMRI are challenged by the low magnetic Prandtl numbers of liquid metals. High fluid Reynolds numbers and careful control of the axial boundaries are required. The quest for laboratory SMRI has been rewarded with the discovery of some interesting inductionless cousins of SMRI, and the recently reported success in demonstrating SMRI itself by taking advantage of conducting axial boundaries. Some outstanding questions and near-future prospects are discussed, especially in connection with astrophysics.

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H. Ji and J. Goodman
Tue, 20 Dec 22
16/97

Comments: 17 pages, 6 figures, and 2 tables, accepted as part of Theme issue: Taylor-Couette and Related Flows on the Centennial of Taylor’s Seminal Philosophical Transactions Paper in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A

Direct driving of simulated planetary jets by upscale energy transfer [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.09401


The precise mechanism that forms jets and large-scale vortices on the giant planets is unknown. An inverse cascade has been suggested. Alternatively, energy may be directly injected by small-scale convection. Our aim is to clarify whether an inverse cascade feeds zonal jets and large-scale eddies in a system of rapidly rotating, deep, geostrophic spherical-shell convection. We analyze the nonlinear scale-to-scale transfer of kinetic energy in such simulations as a function of the azimuthal wave number, m. We find that the main driving of the jets is associated with upscale transfer directly from the small convective scales to the jets. This transfer is very nonlocal in spectral space, bypassing large-scale structures. The jet formation is thus not driven by an inverse cascade. Instead, it is due to a direct driving by Reynolds stresses from small-scale convective flows. Initial correlations are caused by the effect of uniform background rotation and shell geometry on the flows. While the jet growth suppresses convection, it increases the correlation of the convective flows, which further amplifies the jet growth until it is balanced by viscous dissipation. To a much smaller extent, energy is transferred upscale to large-scale vortices directly from the convective scales, mostly outside the tangent cylinder. There, large-scale vortices are not driven by an inverse cascade either. Inside the tangent cylinder, the transfer to large-scale vortices is weaker, but more local in spectral space, leaving open the possibility of an inverse cascade as a driver of large-scale vortices. In addition, large-scale vortices receive kinetic energy from the jets via forward transfer. We therefore suggest a jet instability as an alternative formation mechanism of largescale vortices. Finally, we find that the jet kinetic energy scales as $\ell^{-5}$, the same as for the zonostrophic regime.

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V. Böning, P. Wulff, W. Dietrich, et. al.
Tue, 20 Dec 22
81/97

Comments: 15 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

Morphology of Shocked Lateral Outflows in Colliding Hydrodynamic Flows [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.05631


Supersonic interacting flows occurring in phenomena such as protostellar jets give rise to strong shocks, and have been demonstrated in several laboratory experiments. To study such colliding flows, we use the AstroBEAR AMR code to conduct hydrodynamic simulations in three dimensions. We introduce variations in the flow parameters of density, velocity, and cross sectional radius of the colliding flows %radius in order to study the propagation and conical shape of the bow shock formed by collisions between two, not necessarily symmetric, hypersonic flows. We find that the motion of the interaction region is driven by imbalances in ram pressure between the two flows, while the conical structure of the bow shock is a result of shocked lateral outflows (SLOs) being deflected from the horizontal when the flows are of differing cross-section.

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R. Markwick, A. Frank, J. Carroll-Nellenback, et. al.
Tue, 13 Dec 22
47/105

Comments: N/A

Steady states of the Parker instability [GA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.03215


We study the linear properties, nonlinear saturation and a steady, strongly nonlinear state of the Parker instability in galaxies. We consider magnetic buoyancy and its consequences with and without cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are described using the fluid approximation with anisotropic, non-Fickian diffusion. To avoid unphysical constraints on the instability (such as boundary conditions often used to specify an unstable background state), nonideal MHD equations are solved for deviations from a background state representing an unstable magnetohydrostatic equilibrium. We consider isothermal gas and neglect rotation. The linear evolution of the instability is in broad agreement with earlier analytical and numerical models; but we show that most of the simplifying assumptions of the earlier work do not hold, such that they provide only a qualitative rather than quantitative picture. In its nonlinear stage the instability has significantly altered the background state from its initial state. Vertical distributions of both magnetic field and cosmic rays are much wider, the gas layer is thinner, and the energy densities of both magnetic field and cosmic rays are much reduced. The spatial structure of the nonlinear state differs from that of any linear modes. A transient gas outflow is driven by the weakly nonlinear instability as it approaches saturation.

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D. Tharakkal, A. Shukurov, F. Gent, et. al.
Wed, 7 Dec 22
74/74

Comments: N/A

Parameter study of decaying magnetohydrodynamic turbulence [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.02418


It is well known that helical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence exhibits an inverse transfer of magnetic energy from small to large scales, which is related to the approximate conservation of magnetic helicity. Recently, several numerical investigations noticed the existence of an inverse energy transfer also in nonhelical MHD flows. We run a set of fully resolved direct numerical simulations and perform a wide parameter study of the inverse energy transfer and the decaying laws of helical and nonhelical MHD. Our numerical results show only a small inverse transfer of energy that grows as with increasing Prandtl number (Pm). This latter feature may have interesting consequences for cosmic magnetic field evolution. Additionally, we find that the decaying laws $E \sim t^{-p}$ are independent of the scale separation and depend solely on Pm and Re. In the helical case we measure a dependence of the form $p_b \approx 0.6 + 14/Re$. We also make a comparison between our results and previous literature and discuss the possible reason for the observed disagreements.

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A. Armua, A. Berera and J. Figueroa
Tue, 6 Dec 22
30/87

Comments: 18 pages, 19 figures

Effects of background periodic flow on MHD fast wave propagation to a coronal loop [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.01061


We investigate the propagation of MHD fast waves into a cylindrical coronal loop through an inhomogeneous stationary flow region. The background flow is assumed to have a small, spatially periodic structure in addition to a constant speed. We focus on the absorption of the wave energy in Alfv\'{e}n resonance, comparing with the constant flow case. A new flow (absorption) regime is induced by the periodic flow structure which enhances the absorption for the antiparallel flow and inverse absorption (overreflection) for the parallel flow with respect to the axial wave vector, depending on the transitional layer and flow profiles. A giant overreflection and anomalous absorption behavior arise for some flow configurations. In the other flow regimes, its effect on the absorption is shown to be weak.

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D. Yu
Mon, 5 Dec 22
3/63

Comments: 10 pages, 7 figures

Energy budget-based characterization of convection-driven dynamos [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.00969


We investigate the energy pathways between the velocity and the magnetic fields in a rotating plane layer dynamo driven by Rayleigh-B\’enard convection using direct numerical simulations. The kinetic and magnetic energies are divided into mean and turbulent components to study the production, transport, and dissipation associated with large and small-scale dynamos. This energy balance-based characterization reveals distinct mechanisms for large- and small-scale magnetic field generation in dynamos, depending on the nature of the velocity field and the conditions imposed at the boundaries.

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S. Naskar and A. Pal
Mon, 5 Dec 22
20/63

Comments: N/A

Latitudinal regionalization of rotating spherical shell convection [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.17055


Convection occurs ubiquitously on and in rotating geophysical and astrophysical bodies. Prior spherical shell studies have shown that the convection dynamics in polar regions can differ significantly from the lower latitude, equatorial dynamics. Yet most spherical shell convective scaling laws use globally-averaged quantities that erase latitudinal differences in the physics. Here we quantify those latitudinal differences by analyzing spherical shell simulations in terms of their regionalized convective heat transfer properties. This is done by measuring local Nusselt numbers in two specific, latitudinally separate, portions of the shell, the polar and the equatorial regions, $Nu_p$ and $Nu_e$, respectively. In rotating spherical shells, convection first sets in outside the tangent cylinder such that equatorial heat transfer dominates at small and moderate supercriticalities. We show that the buoyancy forcing, parameterized by the Rayleigh number $Ra$, must exceed the critical equatorial forcing by a factor of $\approx 20$ to trigger polar convection within the tangent cylinder. Once triggered, $Nu_p$ increases with $Ra$ much faster than does $Nu_e$. The equatorial and polar heat fluxes then tend to become comparable at sufficiently high $Ra$. Comparisons between the polar convection data and Cartesian numerical simulations reveal quantitative agreement between the two geometries in terms of heat transfer and averaged bulk temperature gradient. This agreement indicates that spherical shell rotating convection dynamics are accessible both through spherical simulations and via reduced investigatory pathways, be they theoretical, numerical or experimental.

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T. Gastine and J. Aurnou
Thu, 1 Dec 22
14/85

Comments: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in JFM

Revisiting Kinematic Fast Dynamo in 3-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic plasmas: Dynamo transition from non-Helical to Helical flows [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.12362


Dynamos wherein magnetic field is produced from velocity fluctuations are fundamental to our understanding of several astrophysical and/or laboratory phenomena. Though fluid helicity is known to play a key role in the onset of dynamo action, its effect is yet to be fully understood. In this work, a fluid flow proposed recently [Yoshida et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 244501 (2017)] is invoked such that one may inject zero or finite fluid helicity using a control parameter, at the beginning of the simulation. Using a simple kinematic fast dynamo model, we demonstrate unambiguously the strong dependency of short scale dynamo on fluid helicity. In contrast to conventional understanding, it is shown that fluid helicity does strongly influence the physics of short scale dynamo. To corroborate our findings, late time magnetic field spectra for various values of injected fluid helicity is presented along with rigorous geometric'' signatures of the 3D magnetic field surfaces, which shows a transition fromuntwisted” to twisted'' sheet tocigar” like configurations. It is also shown that one of the most studied ABC dynamo model is not the fastest'' dynamo model for problems with lower magnetic Reynolds number. This work brings out, for the first time, the role of fluid helicity in moving fromnon-dynamo” to “dynamo” regime systematically.

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S. Biswas and R. Ganesh
Wed, 23 Nov 22
4/71

Comments: N/A

Mesh-free hydrodynamics in PKDGRAV3 for galaxy formation simulations [GA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.12243


We extend the state-of-the-art N-body code PKDGRAV3 with the inclusion of mesh-free gas hydrodynamics for cosmological simulations. Two new hydrodynamic solvers have been implemented, the mesh-less finite volume and mesh-less finite mass methods. The solvers manifestly conserve mass, momentum and energy, and have been validated with a wide range of standard test simulations, including cosmological simulations. We also describe improvements to PKDGRAV3 that have been implemented for performing hydrodynamic simulations. These changes have been made with efficiency and modularity in mind, and provide a solid base for the implementation of the required modules for galaxy formation and evolution physics and future porting to GPUs. The code is released in a public repository, together with the documentation and all the test simulations presented in this work.

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I. Asensio, C. Vecchia, D. Potter, et. al.
Wed, 23 Nov 22
44/71

Comments: 18 pages, 14 figures; accepted for publication in MNRAS

Nonlinear evolution of magnetorotational instability in a magnetized Taylor-Couette flow: scaling properties and relation to upcoming DRESDYN-MRI experiment [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.10811


Magnetorotational instability (MRI) is the most likely mechanism driving angular momentum transport in astrophysical disks. However, despite many efforts, a direct experimental evidence of MRI in laboratory is still missing. Recently, performing 1D linear analysis of the standard version of MRI (SMRI) between two rotating coaxial cylinders with an axial magnetic field, we showed that SMRI can be detected in the upcoming DRESDYN-MRI experiment with cylindrical magnetized Taylor-Couette (TC) flow with liquid sodium. In this follow-up study related to DRESDYN-MRI experiments, we focus on the nonlinear evolution and saturation properties of SMRI and analyze its scaling behavior with respect to various parameters of the basic TC flow. We do an analysis over the extensive ranges of magnetic Reynolds number $Rm\in [8.5, 37.1]$, Lundquist number $Lu\in[1.5, 15.5]$ and Reynolds number, $Re\in[10^3, 10^5]$. For fixed $Rm$, we investigate the nonlinear dynamics of SMRI for small magnetic Prandtl numbers down to $Pm\sim O(10^{-4})$, aiming for values typical of liquid sodium. In the saturated state, the magnetic energy of SMRI and associated torque on the cylinders, characterizing angular momentum transport, both increase with $Rm$ for fixed $(Lu, Re)$, while for fixed $(Lu, Rm)$, the magnetic energy decreases and torque increases with increasing $Re$. We also study the scaling of the magnetic energy and torque as a function of $Re$ and find a power law dependence $Re^{-0.6…-0.5}$ for the magnetic energy and $Re^{0.4…0.5}$ for the torque at all sets of $(Lu,Rm)$ and high $Re\geq 4000$. We also explore the dependence on Lundquist number and angular velocity. The scaling laws derived here will be instrumental in the subsequent analysis and comparison of numerical results with those obtained from the DRESDYN-MRI experiments in order to conclusively and unambiguously identify SMRI in laboratory.

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A. Mishra, G. Mamatsashvili and F. Stefani
Tue, 22 Nov 22
26/83

Comments: 21 pages, 15 figures, 2 Tables, submitted to Physical Review Fluids

As a matter of dynamical range — scale dependent energy dynamics in MHD turbulence [GA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.09750


Magnetized turbulence is ubiquitous in many astrophysical and terrestrial plasmas but no universal theory exists. Even the detailed energy dynamics in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence are still not well understood. We present a suite of subsonic, super-Alfv\’enic, high plasma-beta MHD turbulence simulations that only vary in their dynamical range, i.e., in their separation between the large-scale forcing and dissipation scales, and their dissipation mechanism (implicit large eddy simulation, ILES, versus and direct numerical simulation, DNS). Using an energy transfer analysis framework we calculate the effective, numerical viscosities and resistivities and demonstrate and that all ILES calculations of MHD turbulence are resolved and correspond to an equivalent visco-resistive MHD turbulence calculation. Increasing the number of grid points used in an ILES corresponds to lowering the dissipation coefficients, i.e., larger (kinetic and magnetic) Reynolds numbers for a constant forcing scale. Independently, we use this same framework to demonstrate that — contrary to hydrodynamic turbulence — the cross-scale energy fluxes are not constant in MHD turbulence. This applies both to different mediators (such as cascade processes or magnetic tension) for a given dynamical range as well as to a dependence on the dynamical range itself, which determines the physical properties of the flow. We do not observe any indication of convergence even at the highest resolution (largest Reynolds numbers) simulation at $2{,}048^3$ cells, calling into question whether an asymptotic regime in MHD turbulence exists, and, if so, what it looks like.

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P. Grete, B. O’Shea and K. Beckwith
Fri, 18 Nov 22
59/70

Comments: under review, comments welcome

Turbulent reconnection acceleration [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.08444


The ubiquitous turbulence in astrophysical plasmas is important for both magnetic reconnection and reconnection acceleration. We study the particle acceleration during fast 3D turbulent reconnection with reconnection-driven turbulence. Particles bounce back and forth between the reconnection-driven inflows due to the mirror reflection and convergence of strong magnetic fields. Via successive head-on collisions, the kinetic energy of the inflows is converted into the accelerated particles. Turbulence not only regulates the inflow speed but also introduces various inflow obliquities with respect to the local turbulent magnetic fields. As both the energy gain and escape probability of particles depend on the inflow speed, the spectral index of particle energy spectrum is not universal. We find it in the range from $\approx 2.5$ to $4$, with the steepest spectrum expected at a strong guide field, i.e. a small angle between the total incoming magnetic field and the guide field. Without scattering diffusion needed for confining particles, the reconnection acceleration can be very efficient at a large inflow speed and a weak guide field.

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S. Xu and A. Lazarian
Thu, 17 Nov 22
7/63

Comments: 16 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Rotating Equivalent Temperature and Solar Granulation [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.08113


The rotation of the fluid cell generates additional pressure and exhibits properties similar to temperature in isotrotropic expansion, affecting the convection criteria in the form of size, with small fluid cells in a natural convection state and large fluid cells in a forced convection state. This is verified in observational data on solar granulation, which also infer that the critical size of the granule is negatively correlated with the value of the local average vortex.

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H. Chen and R. Wu
Wed, 16 Nov 22
45/76

Comments: 8 pages

How do tidal waves interact with convective vortices in rapidly-rotating planets and stars? [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.05900


The dissipation of tidal inertial waves in planetary and stellar convective regions is one of the key mechanisms that drive the evolution of star-planet/planet-moon systems. In this context, the interaction between tidal inertial waves and turbulent convective flows must be modelled in a realistic and robust way. In the state-of-the-art simulations, the friction applied by convection on tidal waves is modelled most of the time by an effective eddy-viscosity. This approach may be valid when the characteristic length scales of convective eddies are smaller than those of tidal waves. However, it becomes highly questionable in the case where tidal waves interact with potentially stable large-scale vortices, as those observed at the pole of Jupiter and Saturn. They are potentially triggered by convection in rapidly-rotating bodies in which the Coriolis acceleration forms the flow in columnar vortical structures along the direction of the rotation axis. In this paper, we investigate the complex interactions between a tidal inertial wave and a columnar convective vortex. We use a quasi-geostrophic semi-analytical model of a convective columnar vortex. We perform linear stability analysis (LSA) to identify the unstable regime and conduct linear numerical simulations for the interactions between the convective vortex and an incoming tidal inertial wave. We verify that in the unstable regime, an incoming tidal inertial wave triggers the most unstable mode of the vortex leading to turbulent dissipation. For stable vortices, the wave-vortex interaction leads to the momentum mixing while it creates a low-velocity region around the vortex core and a new wave-like perturbation in the form of a progressive wave radiating in the far field. The emission of this secondary wave is the strongest when the wavelength of the incoming wave is close to the characteristic size of the vortex.

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V. Dandoy, J. Park, K. Augustson, et. al.
Mon, 14 Nov 22
60/69

Comments: 19 pages, 15 figures, Astronomy & Astrophysics, submitted, comments welcome

Waves in planetary dynamos [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.05270


This Special Topic focuses on magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) processes in deep interiors of planets, in which their fluid dynamos are in operation. The dynamo-generated, global, magnetic fields provide a background for our solar-terrestrial environment. Probing the processes within the dynamos is a significant theoretical and computational challenge and any window into interior dynamics greatly increases our understanding. Such a window is provided by exploring rapid dynamics, particularly MHD waves about the dynamo-defined basic state. This field is the subject of current attention as geophysical observations and numerical modellings advance. We give here particular attention to torsional Alfv\'{e}n waves/oscillations and magnetic Rossby waves, which may be regarded as typical axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric modes, respectively, amongst a wide variety of wave classes of the rapidly-rotating MHD fluids. The excitation of those waves is being evidenced for the geodynamo, whilst also being suggested for Jupiter. We shall overview their dynamics, summarise our current understanding, and give open questions for future perspectives.

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K. Hori, A. Nilsson and S. Tobias
Fri, 11 Nov 22
17/58

Comments: 26 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Reviews of Modern Plasma Physics

On the injection scale of the turbulence in the partially ionized very local interstellar medium [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.04496


The cascade of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is subject to ion-neutral collisional damping and neutral viscous damping in the partially ionized interstellar medium. By examining the damping effects in the warm and partially ionized local interstellar medium, we find that the interstellar turbulence is damped by neutral viscosity at $\sim 261$ au and cannot account for the turbulent magnetic fluctuations detected by Voyager 1 and 2. The MHD turbulence measured by Voyager in the very local interstellar medium (VLISM) should be locally injected in the regime where ions are decoupled from neutrals for its cascade to survive the damping effects. With the imposed ion-neutral decoupling condition, and the strong turbulence condition for the observed Kolmogorov magnetic energy spectrum, we find that the turbulence in the VLISM is sub-Alfv\'{e}nic, and its largest possible injection scale is $\sim 194$ au.

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S. Xu and H. Li
Thu, 10 Nov 22
43/78

Comments: 9 pages, 2 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Polymeric jets throw light on the origin and nature of the forest of solar spicules [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.04493


Spicules are plasma jets, observed in the dynamic interface region between the visible solar surface and the hot corona. At any given time, it is estimated that about 3 million spicules are present on the Sun. We find an intriguing parallel between the simulated spicular forest in a solar-like atmosphere and the numerous jets of polymeric fluids when both are subjected to harmonic forcing. In a radiative magnetohydrodynamic numerical simulation with sub-surface convection, solar global surface oscillations are excited similarly to those harmonic vibrations. The jets thus produced match remarkably well with the forests of spicules detected in observations of the Sun. Taken together, the numerical simulations of the Sun and the laboratory fluid dynamics experiments provide insights into the mechanism underlying the ubiquity of jets: the nonlinear focusing of quasi-periodic waves in anisotropic media of magnetized plasma as well as polymeric fluids under gravity is sufficient to generate a forest of spicules on the Sun.

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S. Dey, P. Chatterjee, M. N., et. al.
Thu, 10 Nov 22
75/78

Comments: Published in Nature Physics. Video files are available at this https URL

A study of global magnetic helicity in self-consistent spherical dynamos [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.01356


Magnetic helicity is a fundamental constraint in both ideal and resistive magnetohydrodynamics. Measurements of magnetic helicity density on the Sun and other stars are used to interpret the internal behaviour of the dynamo generating the global magnetic field. In this note, we study the behaviour of the global relative magnetic helicity in three self-consistent spherical dynamo solutions of increasing complexity. Magnetic helicity describes the global linkage of the poloidal and toroidal magnetic fields (weighted by magnetic flux), and our results indicate that there are preferred states of this linkage. This leads us to propose that global magnetic reversals are, perhaps, a means of preserving this linkage, since, when only one of the poloidal or toroidal fields reverses, the preferred state of linkage is lost. It is shown that magnetic helicity indicates the onset of reversals and that this signature may be observed at the outer surface.

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P. Gupta, R. Simitev and D. MacTaggart
Thu, 3 Nov 22
26/59

Comments: To appear in Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics [Accepted 2022-10-14]

Clusters of heavy particles in two-dimensional Keplerian turbulence [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.13147


Protoplanetary disks are gaseous systems in Keplerian rotation around young stars, known to be turbulent. They include a small fraction of dust from which planets form. In the incremental scenario for planet growth, the formation of kilometer-size objects (planetesimals) from pebbles is a major open question. Clustering of particles is necessary for solids to undergo a local gravitational collapse. To address this question, the dynamic of inertial particles in turbulent flows with Keplerian rotation and shear is studied. Two-dimensional direct numerical simulations are performed to explore systematically two physical parameters: the rotation rate, which depends on the distance to the star, and the particle response time, which relates to their size. Shear is found to drastically affect the characteristics of the turbulent flow destroying cyclones and favoring the survival of anticyclones. Faster rotation enhances clustering of particles in anticyclones, especially for intermediate particles sizes. These clusters form in a hierarchical manner and merge together with time. For parameter values falling outside this regime, solids still concentrate on fractal sets. The mass distribution of particles is then found to be multifractal with small dimensions at large orders, intriguing for triggering their gravitational collapse. Such results are promising for a precise description and better understanding of planetesimal formation.

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F. Gerosa, H. Meheut and J. Bec
Tue, 25 Oct 22
78/111

Comments: 16 pages, 21 figures

Interplay between geostrophic vortices and inertial waves in precession-driven turbulence [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.12536


The properties of rotating turbulence driven by precession are studied using direct numerical simulations and analysis of the underlying dynamical processes in Fourier space. The study is carried out in the local rotating coordinate frame, where precession gives rise to a background shear flow, which becomes linearly unstable and breaks down into turbulence. We observe that this precession-driven turbulence is in general characterized by coexisting two dimensional (2D) columnar vortices and three dimensional (3D) inertial waves, whose relative energies depend on the precession parameter $Po$. The vortices resemble the typical condensates of geostrophic turbulence, are aligned along the rotation axis (with zero wavenumber in this direction, $k_z=0$) and are fed by the 3D waves through nonlinear transfer of energy, while the waves (with $k_z\neq0$) in turn are directly fed by the precessional instability of the background flow. The vortices themselves undergo inverse cascade of energy and exhibit anisotropy in Fourier space. For small $Po<0.1$ and sufficiently high Reynolds numbers, the typical regime for most geo- and astrophysical applications, the flow exhibits strongly oscillatory (bursty) evolution due to the alternation of vortices and small-scale waves. On the other hand, at larger $Po>0.1$ turbulence is quasi-steady with only mild fluctuations, the coexisting columnar vortices and waves in this state give rise to a split (simultaneous inverse and forward) cascade. Increasing the precession magnitude causes a reinforcement of waves relative to vortices with the energy spectrum approaching Kolmogorov scaling and, therefore, the precession mechanism counteracts the effects of the rotation.

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F. Pizzi, G. Mamatsashvili, A. Barker, et. al.
Tue, 25 Oct 22
93/111

Comments: 20 pages, 16 figures, 1 table, submitted to Physics of Fluids

Three-dimensional numerical simulations of ambipolar diffusion in NS cores in the one-fluid approximation: instability of poloidal magnetic field [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.10869


We numerically model evolution of magnetic fields inside a neutron star under the influence of ambipolar diffusion in the weak-coupling mode in the one-fluid MHD approximation. Our simulations are three-dimensional and performed in spherical coordinates. Our model covers the neutron star core and includes crust where the magnetic field decay is due to Ohmic decay. We discover an instability of poloidal magnetic field under the influence of ambipolar diffusion. This instability develops in the neutron star core and grows on a timescale of 0.2 dimensionless times, reaching saturation by 2 dimensionless times. The instability leads to formation of azimuthal magnetic field with azimuthal wavenumber $m=14$ (at the moment of saturation) which keeps merging and reaches $m=4$ by 16 dimensionless times. Over the course of our simulations (16 dimensionless times) the surface dipolar magnetic field decays, reaching 20 percent of its original value and keeps decaying. The decay timescale for the total magnetic energy is six dimensionless times. The ambipolar diffusion induces electric currents in the crust where these currents dissipate efficiently. Strong electric currents in the crust lead to heating, which could correspond to luminosities of $\approx 10^{29}$ erg s$^{-1}$ during hundreds of Myrs for an initial magnetic field of $10^{14}$ G. Ambipolar diffusion leads to formation of small-scale magnetic fields at the neutron star surface.

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A. Igoshev and R. Hollerbach
Fri, 21 Oct 22
22/76

Comments: Submitted to MNRAS; 26 pages

Characterization of the Thermospheric Mean Winds and Circulation during Solstice using ICON/MIGHTI Observations [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.09407


Using the horizontal neutral wind observations from the MIGHTI instrument onboard NASA’s ICON (Ionospheric Connection Explorer) spacecraft with continuous coverage, we determine the climatology of the mean zonal and meridional winds and the associated mean circulation at low- to middle latitudes ($10^\circ$S-40$^{\circ}$N) for Northern Hemisphere {summer} solstice conditions between 90 km and 200 km altitudes, specifically on 20 June 2020 solstice as well as for a one-month period from 8 June-7 July 2020 {and for Northern winter season from 16 December 2019-31 January 2020, which spans a 47-day period, providing full local time coverage}. The data are averaged within appropriate altitude, longitude, latitude, solar zenith angle, and local time bins to produce mean wind distributions. The geographical distributions and local time variations of the mean horizontal circulation are evaluated. The instantaneous horizontal winds exhibit a significant degree of spatiotemporal variability often exceeding $\pm 150 $ m s$^{-1}$. The daily averaged zonal mean winds demonstrate day-to-day variability. Eastward zonal winds and northward (winter-to-summer) meridional winds are prevalent in the lower thermosphere, which provides indirect observational evidence of the eastward momentum deposition by small-scale gravity waves. The mean neutral winds and circulation exhibit smaller scale structures in the lower thermosphere (90-120 km), while they are more homogeneous in the upper thermosphere, indicating the increasingly dissipative nature of the thermosphere. The mean wind and circulation patterns inferred from ICON/MIGHTI measurements can be used to constrain and validate general circulation models, as well as input for numerical wave models.

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E. Yiğit, M. Dhadly, A. Medvedev, et. al.
Wed, 19 Oct 22
24/87

Comments: Accepted for publication in Journal of Geophysical Research – Space Physics

Quasi-periodic eruptions from mildly eccentric unstable mass transfer in galactic nuclei [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.08023


We propose that the recently observed quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) in galactic nuclei are produced by unstable mass transfer due to Roche lobe overflow of a low-mass (< 0.5Msun) main-sequence star in a mildly eccentric (e ~ 0.5) orbit. We argue that the QPE emission is powered by circularization shocks, but not directly by black hole accretion. Our model predicts the presence of a time-steady accretion disk that is bolometrically brighter than the time-averaged QPE luminosity, but primarily emits in the extreme-UV. This is consistent with the quiescent soft X-ray emission detected in between the eruptions in eROSITA QPE1, QPE2, and GSN 069. Such accretion disks have an unusual $\nu L_\nu \propto \nu^{12/7}$ optical spectrum. The lifetime of the bright QPE phase, 100-1000 yrs, is set by mass-loss triggered by ram-pressure interaction between the star and the accretion disk fed by the star itself. We show that the stellar orbits needed to explain QPEs can be efficiently created by the Hills breakup of tight stellar binaries provided that (i) the stellar binary orbit is tidally hardened before the breakup due to diffusive growth of the f-mode amplitude, and (ii) the captured star’s orbit decays by gravitational wave emission without significant orbital angular momentum diffusion (which is the case for black holes less than about a million Msun). We conclude by discussing the implications of our model for hyper-velocity stars, extreme mass ratio inspirals, repeating partial TDEs, and related stellar phenomena in galactic nuclei.

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W. Lu and E. Quataert
Tue, 18 Oct 22
72/99

Comments: 19 pages, 9 figures, and appendices. Comments welcome!

An innovative and automated method for vortex identification. I. Description of the SWIRL algorithm [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.05223


Context. A universally accepted definition of what a vortex is has not yet been reached. Therefore, we lack an unambiguous and rigorous method for the identification of vortices in fluid flows. Such a method would be necessary to conduct robust statistical studies on vortices in highly dynamical and turbulent systems, such as the solar atmosphere. Aims. We aim to develop an innovative and robust automated methodology for the identification of vortices based on local and global characteristics of the flow. Moreover, the use of a threshold that could potentially prevent the detection of weak vortices in the identification process should be avoided. Methods. We present a new method that combines the rigor of mathematical criteria with the global perspective of morphological techniques. The core of the method consists in the estimation of the center of rotation for every point of the flow that presents some degree of curvature in its neighborhood. For that, we employ the Rortex criterion and combine it with morphological considerations of the velocity field. We then identify coherent vortical structures by clusters of estimated centers of rotation. Results. We demonstrate that the Rortex is a more reliable criterion than are the swirling strength and the vorticity for the extraction of physical information from vortical flows, because it measures the rigid-body rotational part of the flow alone and is not biased by the presence of pure or intrinsic shears. We show that the method performs well on a simplistic test case composed of two Lamb-Oseen vortices. We combine the proposed method with a state of the art clustering algorithm to build an automated vortex identification algorithm. (Abridged)

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J. Cuissa and O. Steiner
Wed, 12 Oct 22
60/75

Comments: 14 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

Assessment of a new sub-grid model for magneto-hydrodynamical turbulence. I. Magnetorotational instability [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.02173


Insufficient numerical resolution of grid-based, direct numerical simulations (DNS) hampers the development of instabilitydriven turbulence at small (unresolved) scales. As an alternative to DNS, sub-grid models can potentially reproduce the effects of turbulence at small scales in terms of the resolved scales, and hence can capture physical effects with less computational resources. We present a new sub-grid model, the MHD-instability-induced-turbulence (MInIT) mean-field model. MInIT is a physically motivated model based on the evolution of the turbulent (Maxwell, Reynolds, and Faraday) stress tensors and their relation with the turbulent energy densities of the magneto-rotational (MRI) and parasitic instabilities, modeled with two partial differential evolution equations with stiff source terms. Their solution allows obtaining the turbulent stress tensors through the constant coefficients that link them to the energy densities. The model is assessed using data from MRI in-box DNS and applying a filtering operation to compare the filtered data with that from the model. Using the $L_2$-norm as the metric for the comparison, we find less than one order-of-magnitude difference between the two sets of data. No dependence on filter size or length scale of unresolved scales is found, as opposed to results using the gradient model (which we also use to contrast our model) in which the $L_2$-norm of some of the stresses increases with filter size. We conclude that MInIT can help DNS by properly capturing small-scale turbulent stresses which has potential implications on the dynamics of highly-magnetized rotating compact objects, such as those formed during binary neutron star mergers.

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M. Miravet-Tenés, P. Cerdá-Durán, M. Obergaulinger, et. al.
Thu, 6 Oct 22
10/77

Comments: 20 pages, 15 figures

Particle clustering in turbulence: Prediction of spatial and statistical properties with deep learning [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.02339


We demonstrate the utility of deep learning for modeling the clustering of particles that are aerodynamically coupled to turbulent fluids. Using a Lagrangian particle module within the ATHENA++ hydrodynamics code, we simulate the dynamics of particles in the Epstein drag regime within a periodic domain of isotropic forced hydrodynamic turbulence. This setup is an idealized model relevant to the collisional growth of micron to mmsized dust particles in early stage planet formation. The simulation data is used to train a U-Net deep learning model to predict gridded three-dimensional representations of the particle density and velocity fields, given as input the corresponding fluid fields. The trained model qualitatively captures the filamentary structure of clustered particles in a highly non-linear regime. We assess model fidelity by calculating metrics of the density structure (the radial distribution function) and of the velocity field (the relative velocity and the relative radial velocity between particles). Although trained only on the spatial fields, the model predicts these statistical quantities with errors that are typically < 10%. Our results suggest that, given appropriately expanded training data, deep learning could be used to accelerate calculations of particle clustering and collision outcomes both in protoplanetary disks, and in related two-fluid turbulence problems that arise in other disciplines.

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Y. Chan, N. Manger, Y. Li, et. al.
Thu, 6 Oct 22
59/77

Comments: 19 pages, 13 figures, submitted to ApJ

A finite-volume scheme for modeling compressible magnetohydrodynamic flows at low Mach numbers in stellar interiors [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.01641


Fully compressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations are a fundamental tool for investigating the role of dynamo amplification in the generation of magnetic fields in deep convective layers of stars. The flows that arise in such environments are characterized by low (sonic) Mach numbers (M_son < 0.01 ). In these regimes, conventional MHD codes typically show excessive dissipation and tend to be inefficient as the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) constraint on the time step becomes too strict. In this work we present a new method for efficiently simulating MHD flows at low Mach numbers in a space-dependent gravitational potential while still retaining all effects of compressibility. The proposed scheme is implemented in the finite-volume Seven-League Hydro (SLH) code, and it makes use of a low-Mach version of the five-wave Harten-Lax-van Leer discontinuities (HLLD) solver to reduce numerical dissipation, an implicit-explicit time discretization technique based on Strang splitting to overcome the overly strict CFL constraint, and a well-balancing method that dramatically reduces the magnitude of spatial discretization errors in strongly stratified setups. The solenoidal constraint on the magnetic field is enforced by using a constrained transport method on a staggered grid. We carry out five verification tests, including the simulation of a small-scale dynamo in a star-like environment at M_son ~ 0.001 . We demonstrate that the proposed scheme can be used to accurately simulate compressible MHD flows in regimes of low Mach numbers and strongly stratified setups even with moderately coarse grids.

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G. Leidi, C. Birke, R. Andrassy, et. al.
Wed, 5 Oct 22
37/73

Comments: N/A

Gravitational waves from extreme-mass-ratio systems in astrophysical environments [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.01133


We establish a generic, fully-relativistic formalism to study gravitational-wave emission by extreme-mass-ratio systems in spherically-symmetric, non-vacuum black-hole spacetimes. The potential applications to astrophysical setups range from black holes accreting baryonic matter to those within axionic clouds and dark matter environments, allowing to assess the impact of the galactic potential, of accretion, gravitational drag and halo feedback on the generation and propagation of gravitational-waves. We apply our methods to a black hole within a halo of matter. We find fluid modes imparted to the gravitational-wave signal (a clear evidence of the black hole fundamental mode instability) and the tantalizing possibility to infer galactic properties from gravitational-wave measurements by sensitive, low-frequency detectors.

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V. Cardoso, K. Destounis, F. Duque, et. al.
Wed, 5 Oct 22
62/73

Comments: 7 pages, 3 figures, comments are welcome

Magnetic helicity fluxes from triple correlators [GA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.14810


Fluxes of the magnetic helicity density play an important role in large-scale turbulent dynamos, allowing the growth of large-scale magnetic fields while overcoming catastrophic quenching. We show here, analytically, how several important types of magnetic helicity fluxes can arise from terms involving triple correlators of fluctuating fields in the helicity density evolution equation. For this, we assume incompressibility and weak inhomogeneity, and use a quasinormal closure approximation: fourth-order correlators are replaced by products of second-order ones, and the effect of the fourth-order cumulants on the evolution of the third moments is modelled by a strong damping term. First, we show how a diffusive helicity flux, till now only measured in simulations, arises from the triple correlation term. This is accompanied by what we refer to as a `random advective flux’, which predominantly transports magnetic helicity along the gradients of the random fields. We also find that a new helicity flux contribution, in some aspects similar to that first proposed by Vishniac, can arise from the triple correlator. This contribution depends on the gradients of the random magnetic and kinetic energies along the large-scale vorticity, and thus arises in any rotating, stratified system, even if the turbulence is predominantly nonhelical. It can source a large-scale dynamo by itself while spatially transporting magnetic helicity within the system.

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K. Gopalakrishnan and K. Subramanian
Fri, 30 Sep 22
12/71

Comments: 19 pages

Validity of sound-proof approximations for magnetic buoyancy [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.13315


The presence of acoustic waves in models of compressible flows can present complications for analytical and numerical analysis. Therefore, several methods have been developed to filter out these waves, leading to various “sound-proof” models, including the Boussinesq, anelastic and pseudo-incompressible models. We assess the validity of each of these approximate models for describing magnetic buoyancy in the context of the solar interior. A general sound-proof model is introduced and compared to the fully compressible system in a number of asymptotic regimes, including both non-rotating and rotating cases. We obtain specific constraints that must be satisfied in order that the model captures the leading-order behaviour of the fully compressible system. We then discuss which of the existing sound-proof models satisfy these constraints, and in what parameter regimes. We also present a variational derivation of the pseudo-incompressible MHD model, demonstrating its underlying Hamiltonian structure.

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J. Moss, T. Wood and P. Bushby
Thu, 29 Sep 22
39/70

Comments: N/A

Lagrangian characterization of sub-Alfvénic turbulence energetics [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.14143


We calculate the energetics of compressible and sub-Alfv\’enic turbulence based on the dynamics of coherent cylindrical fluid parcels. We show that parallel and perpendicular magnetic fluctuations are generalized coordinates of the local perturbed Lagrangian of a magnetized fluid, and prove analytically that the bulk of the magnetic energy transferred to kinetic is the energy stored in the coupling between the initial and fluctuating magnetic field, $\vec{B}_{0} \cdot \delta \vec{B}/4\pi$. The analytical relations are consistent with numerical data up to second order terms.

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R. Skalidis, K. Tassis and V. Pavlidou
Thu, 29 Sep 22
69/70

Comments: 13 pages, 1 figure, submitted, comments welcome

Relativistic Liquids: GENERIC or EIT? [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.12865


We study the GENERIC hydrodynamic theory for relativistic liquids formulated by \”{O}ttinger and collaborators. We use the maximum entropy principle to derive its conditions for linear stability (in an arbitrary reference frame) and for relativistic causality. In addition, we show that, in the linear regime, its field equations can be recast into a symmetric-hyperbolic form. Once rewritten in this way, the linearised field equations turn out to be a particular realization of the Israel-Stewart theory, where some of the Israel-Stewart free parameters are constrained. This also allows us to reinterpret the GENERIC framework in view of the principles of Extended Irreversible Thermodynamics (EIT).

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L. Gavassino and M. Antonelli
Tue, 27 Sep 22
3/89

Comments: 15 pages, no figures. Comments are welcome

Relativistic Liquids: GENERIC or EIT? [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.12865


We study the GENERIC hydrodynamic theory for relativistic liquids formulated by \”{O}ttinger and collaborators. We use the maximum entropy principle to derive its conditions for linear stability (in an arbitrary reference frame) and for relativistic causality. In addition, we show that, in the linear regime, its field equations can be recast into a symmetric-hyperbolic form. Once rewritten in this way, the linearised field equations turn out to be a particular realization of the Israel-Stewart theory, where some of the Israel-Stewart free parameters are constrained. This also allows us to reinterpret the GENERIC framework in view of the principles of Extended Irreversible Thermodynamics (EIT).

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L. Gavassino and M. Antonelli
Tue, 27 Sep 22
3/89

Comments: 15 pages, no figures. Comments are welcome

Can we detect deep axisymmetric toroidal magnetic fields in stars? [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.09823


One of the major discoveries of asteroseismology is the signature of a strong extraction of angular momentum (AM) in the radiative zones of stars across the entire Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, resulting in weak core-to-surface rotation contrasts. Despite all efforts, a consistent AM transport theory, which reproduces both the internal rotation and mixing probed thanks to the seismology of stars, remains one of the major open problems in modern stellar astrophysics. A possible key ingredient to figure out this puzzle is magnetic field with its various possible topologies. Among them, strong axisymmetric toroidal fields, which are subject to the so-called Tayler MHD instability, could play a major role. They could trigger a dynamo action in radiative layers while the resulting magnetic torque allows an efficient transport of AM. But is it possible to detect signatures of these deep toroidal magnetic fields? The only way to answer this question is asteroseismology and the best laboratories of study are intermediate-mass and massive stars because of their external radiative envelope. Since most of these are rapid rotators during their main-sequence, we have to study stellar pulsations propagating in stably stratified, rotating, and potentially strongly magnetised radiative zones. For that, we generalise the traditional approximation of rotation, which provides in its classic version a flexible treatment of the adiabatic propagation of gravito-inertial modes, by taking simultaneously general axisymmetric differential rotation and toroidal magnetic fields into account. Using this new non-perturbative formalism, we derive the asymptotic properties of magneto-gravito-inertial modes and we explore the different possible field configurations. We found that the magnetic effects should be detectable for equatorial fields using high-precision asteroseismic data.

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H. Dhouib, S. Mathis, L. Bugnet, et. al.
Wed, 21 Sep 22
52/68

Comments: 4 pages, 2 figures. Proceeding of the Annual meeting of the French Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics (SF2A 2022)

Nonlinear Mixing driven by Internal Gravity Waves [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.08344


Hydrodynamic waves propagate through stellar interiors, transporting energy and angular momentum. They can also advect fluid elements to produce mixing, but this effect has not been quantified from first principles. We derive the leading order non-linear wave mixing due to internal gravity waves in a thermally and compositionally-stratified fluid. We find that this scales as the fourth power of wave velocity, that it is suppressed by compositional stratification, and that it depends on the thermal and compositional diffusivities.

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A. Jermyn
Tue, 20 Sep 22
2/81

Comments: 11 pages, 0 figures

Observation of axisymmetric standard magnetorotational instability in the laboratory [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.08457


We report the first direct evidence for the axisymmetric standard magnetorotational instability (SMRI) from a combined experimental and numerical study of a magnetized liquid-metal shear flow in a Taylor-Couette cell with independently rotating and electrically conducting end caps. When a uniform vertical magnetic field $B_i$ is applied along the rotation axis, the measured radial magnetic field $B_r$ on the inner cylinder increases linearly with a small magnetic Reynolds number $Rm$ due to the magnetization of the residue Ekman circulation. Onset of the axisymmetric SMRI is identified from the nonlinear increase of $B_r$ beyond a critical $Rm$ in both experiments and nonlinear numerical simulations. The axisymmetric SMRI exists only at sufficiently large $Rm$ and intermediate $B_i$, a feature consistent with theoretical predictions. Our simulations further show that the axisymmetric SMRI causes the velocity and magnetic fields to contribute an outward flux of axial angular momentum in the bulk region, just as it should in accretion disks.

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Y. Wang, E. Gilson, F. Ebrahimi, et. al.
Tue, 20 Sep 22
20/81

Comments: 10 pages; 11 figures

Identification of a non-axisymmetric mode in laboratory experiments searching for standard magnetorotational instability [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.08410


The standard magnetorotational instability (SMRI) is a promising mechanism for turbulence and rapid accretion in astrophysical disks. It is a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instability that destabilizes otherwise hydrodynamically stable disk flow. Due to its microscopic nature at astronomical distances and stringent requirements in laboratory experiments, SMRI has remained unconfirmed since its proposal, despite its astrophysical importance. Here we report a nonaxisymmetric MHD instability in a modified Taylor-Couette experiment. To search for SMRI, a uniform magnetic field is imposed along the rotation axis of a swirling liquid-metal flow. The instability initially grows exponentially, becoming prominent only for sufficient flow shear and moderate magnetic field. These conditions for instability are qualitatively consistent with SMRI, but at magnetic Reynolds numbers below the predictions of linear analyses with periodic axial boundaries. Three-dimensional numerical simulations, however, reproduce the observed instability, indicating that it grows linearly from the primary axisymmetric flow modified by the applied magnetic field.

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Y. Wang, E. Gilson, F. Ebrahimi, et. al.
Tue, 20 Sep 22
55/81

Comments: 15 pages, 16 figures

Dissipative magnetic structures and scales in small-scale dynamos [GA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.08717


Small-scale dynamos play important roles in modern astrophysics, especially on Galactic and extragalactic scales. Owing to dynamo action, purely hydrodynamic Kolmogorov turbulence hardly exists and is often replaced by hydromagnetic turbulence. Understanding the size of dissipative magnetic structures is important in estimating the time scale of Galactic scintillation and other observational and theoretical aspects of interstellar and intergalactic small-scale dynamos. Here we show that the thickness of magnetic flux tubes decreases more rapidly with increasing magnetic Prandtl number than previously expected. Also the theoretical scale based on the dynamo growth rate and the magnetic diffusivity decrease faster than expected. However, the scale based on the cutoff of the magnetic energy spectra scales as expected for large magnetic Prandtl numbers, but continues in the same way also for moderately small values – contrary to what is expected. For a critical magnetic Prandtl number of about 0.27, the dissipative and resistive cutoffs are found to occur at the same wavenumber. For large magnetic Prandtl numbers, our simulations show that the peak of the magnetic energy spectrum occurs at a wavenumber that is twice as large as previously predicted.

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A. Brandenburg, I. Rogachevskii and J. Schober
Tue, 20 Sep 22
66/81

Comments: 6 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to MNRAS

An analytical study of the MHD clamshell instability on a sphere [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.07349


This paper studies the instability of two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) systems on a sphere using analytical methods. The underlying flow consists of a zonal differential rotation and a toroidal magnetic field is present. Semicircle rules that prescribe the possible domain of the wave velocity in the complex plane for general flow and field profiles are derived. The paper then sets out an analytical study of the clamshell instability', which features field lines on the two hemispheres tilting in opposite directions (Cally 2001, Sol. Phys. vol. 199, pp. 231--249). An asymptotic solution for the instability problem is derived for the limit of weak shear of the zonal flow, via the method of matched asymptotic expansions. It is shown that when the zonal flow is solid body rotation, there exists a neutral mode that tilts the magnetic field lines, referred to as thetilting mode’. A weak shear of the zonal flow excites the critical layer of the tilting mode, which reverses the tilting direction to form the clamshell pattern and induces the instability. The asymptotic solution provides insights into properties of the instability for a range of flow and field profiles. A remarkable feature is that the magnetic field affects the instability only through its local behaviour in the critical layer.

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C. Wang, A. Gilbert and J. Mason
Fri, 16 Sep 22
48/84

Comments: N/A

Spectral Difference method with {\it a posteriori} limiting: Application to the Euler equations in one and two space dimensions [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.06597


We present a new numerical scheme which combines the Spectral Difference (SD) method up to arbitrary high order with \emph{a-posteriori} limiting using the classical MUSCL-Hancock scheme as fallback scheme. It delivers very accurate solutions in smooth regions of the flow, while capturing sharp discontinuities without spurious oscillations. We exploit the strict equivalence between the SD scheme and a Finite-Volume (FV) scheme based on the SD control volumes to enable a straightforward limiting strategy. At the end of each stage of our high-order time-integration ADER scheme, we check if the high-order solution is admissible under a number of numerical and physical criteria. If not, we replace the high-order fluxes of the troubled cells by fluxes from our robust second-order MUSCL fallback scheme. We apply our method to a suite of test problems for the 1D and 2D Euler equations. We demonstrate that this combination of SD and ADER provides a virtually arbitrary high order of accuracy, while at the same time preserving good sub-element shock capturing capabilities.

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D. Velasco-Romero, M. Veiga and R. Teyssier
Thu, 15 Sep 22
48/67

Comments: Submitted to MNRAS

Convective outgassing efficiency in planetary magma oceans: insights from computational fluid dynamics [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.06199


Planetary atmospheres are commonly thought to result from the efficient outgassing of cooling magma oceans. During this stage, vigorous convective motions in the molten interior are believed to rapidly transport the dissolved volatiles to shallow depths where they exsolve and burst at the surface. This assumption of efficient degassing and atmosphere formation has important implications for planetary evolution, but has never been tested against fluid dynamics considerations. Yet, during a convective cycle, only a finite fraction of the magma ocean can reach the shallow depths where volatiles exsolution can occur, and a large-scale circulation may prevent a substantial magma ocean volume from rapidly reaching the planetary surface. Therefore, we conducted computational fluid dynamics experiments of vigorous 2D and 3D Rayleigh-B\’enard convection at Prandtl number of unity to characterize the ability of the convecting fluid to reach shallow depths at which volatiles are exsolved and extracted to the atmosphere. Outgassing efficiency is essentially a function of the magnitude of the convective velocities. This allows deriving simple expressions to predict the time evolution of the amount of outgassed volatiles as a function of the magma ocean governing parameters. For plausible cases, the time required to exsolve all oversaturated water can exceed the magma ocean lifetime in a given highly vigorous transient stage, leading to incomplete or even negligible outgassing. Furthermore, the planet size and the initial magma ocean water content, through the convective vigor and the exsolution depth, respectively, strongly affect magma oceans degassing efficiency, possibly leading to divergent planetary evolution paths and resulting surface conditions. Overall, despite vigorous convection, for a significant range of parameters, convective degassing appears not as efficient as previously thought.

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A. Salvador and H. Samuel
Wed, 14 Sep 22
65/90

Comments: 84 pages, 16 figures, 6 tables; Accepted for publication in Icarus

To E or not to E: Numerical Nuances of Global Coronal Models [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.04481


In the recent years, global coronal models have experienced an ongoing increase in popularity as tools for forecasting solar weather. Within the domain of up to 21.5Rsun, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is used to resolve the coronal structure using magnetograms as inputs at the solar surface. Ideally, these computations would be repeated with every update of the solar magnetogram so that they could be used in the ESA Modelling and Data Analysis Working Group (MADAWG) magnetic connectivity tool (this http URL). Thus, it is crucial that these results are both accurate and efficient. While much work has been published showing the results of these models in comparison with observations, not many of it discusses the intricate numerical adjustments required to achieve these results. These range from details of boundary condition formulations to adjustments as large as enforcing parallelism between the magnetic field and velocity. By omitting the electric field in ideal-MHD, the description of the physics can be insufficient and may lead to excessive diffusion and incorrect profiles. We formulate inner boundary conditions which, along with other techniques, reduce artificial electric field generation. Moreover, we investigate how different outer boundary condition formulations and grid design affect the results and convergence, with special focus on the density and the radial component of the B-field. The significant improvement in accuracy of real magnetic map-driven simulations is illustrated for an example of the 2008 eclipse.

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M. Brchnelova, B. Kuźma, B. Perri, et. al.
Tue, 13 Sep 22
69/85

Comments: 28 pages, 26 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJS

Universal scaling laws and density slope for dark matter halos from rotation curves and energy cascade [GA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.03313


Smalls scale challenges suggest some missing pieces in our current understandings of dark matter. A cascade theory for dark matter flow is proposed to provide extra insights, similar to the cascade in hydrodynamic turbulence. The energy cascade from small to large scales with a constant rate $\varepsilon_u$ ($\approx -4.6\times 10^{-7}m^2/s^3$) is a fundamental feature of dark matter flow. Energy cascade leads to a two-thirds law for kinetic energy $v_r^2$ on scale $r$ such that $v_r^2 \propto (\varepsilon_u r)^{2/3}$, as confirmed by N-body simulations. This is equivalent to a four-thirds law for mean halo density $\rho_s$ enclosed in the scale radius $r_s$ such that $\rho_s \propto \varepsilon_u^{2/3}G^{-1}r_s^{-4/3}$, as confirmed by data from galaxy rotation curves. By identifying relevant key constants, critical scales of dark matter might be obtained. The largest halo scale $r_l$ can be determined by $-u_0^3/\varepsilon_u$, where $u_0$ is the velocity dispersion. The smallest scale $r_{\eta}$ is dependent on the nature of dark matter. For collisionless dark matter, $r_{\eta} \propto (-{G\hbar/\varepsilon_{u}}) ^{1/3}\approx 10^{-13}m$, where $\hbar$ is the Planck constant. A uncertainty principle for momentum and acceleration fluctuations is also postulated. For self-interacting dark matter, $r_{\eta} \propto \varepsilon_{u}^2 G^{-3}(\sigma/m)^3$, where $\sigma/m$ is the cross-section. On halo scale, the energy cascade leads to an asymptotic slope $\gamma=-4/3$ for fully virialized halos with a vanishing radial flow, which might explain the nearly universal halo density. Based on the continuity equation, halo density is analytically shown to be closely dependent on the radial flow and mass accretion such that simulated halos can have different limiting slopes. A modified Einasto density profile is proposed accordingly.

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Z. Xu
Thu, 8 Sep 22
18/77

Comments: 7 pages, 7 figures

TEMPus VoLA: the Timed Epstein Multi-pressure Vessel at Low Accelerations [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.00635


The field of planetary system formation relies extensively on our understanding of the aerodynamic interaction between gas and dust in protoplanetary disks. Of particular importance are the mechanisms triggering fluid instabilities and clumping of dust particles into aggregates, and their subsequent inclusion into planetesimals. We introduce the Timed Epstein Multi-pressure vessel at Low Accelerations (TEMPusVoLA), which is an experimental apparatus for the study of particle dynamics and rarefied gas under micro-gravity conditions. This facility contains three experiments dedicated to studying aerodynamic processes, i) the development of pressure gradients due to collective particle-gas interaction, ii) the drag coefficients of dust aggregates with variable particle-gas velocity, iii) the effect of dust on the profile of a shear flow and resultant onset of turbulence. The approach is innovative with respect to previous experiments because we access an untouched parameter space in terms of dust particle packing fraction, and Knudsen, Stokes, and Reynolds numbers. The mechanisms investigated are also relevant for our understanding of the emission of dust from active surfaces such as cometary nuclei and new experimental data will help interpreting previous datasets (Rosetta) and prepare future spacecraft observations (Comet Interceptor). We report on the performance of the experiments, which has been tested over the course of multiple flight campaigns. The project is now ready to benefit from additional flight campaigns, to cover a wide parameter space. The outcome will be a comprehensive framework to test models and numerical recipes for studying collective dust particle aerodynamics under space-like conditions.

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H. Capelo, J. Kühn, A. Pommerol, et. al.
Fri, 2 Sep 22
49/62

Comments: 26 pages, 24 figures; Accepted for publication in Review of Scientific Instruments

High-order Discontinuous Galerkin hydrodynamics with sub-cell shock capturing on GPUs [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2208.11131


Hydrodynamical numerical methods that converge with high-order hold particular promise for astrophysical studies, as they can in principle reach prescribed accuracy goals with higher computational efficiency than standard second- or third-order approaches. Here we consider the performance and accuracy benefits of Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods, which offer a particularly straightforward approach to reach extremely high order. Also, their computational stencil maps well to modern GPU devices, further raising the attractiveness of this approach. However, a traditional weakness of this method lies in the treatment of physical discontinuities such as shocks. We address this by invoking an artificial viscosity field to supply required dissipation where needed, and which can be augmented, if desired, with physical viscosity and thermal conductivity, yielding a high-order treatment of the Navier-Stokes equations for compressible fluids. We show that our approach results in sub-cell shock capturing ability, unlike traditional limiting schemes that tend to defeat the benefits of going to high order in DG in problems featuring many shocks. We demonstrate exponential convergence of our solver as a function of order when applied to smooth flows, such as the Kelvin-Helmholtz reference problem of arXiv:1509.03630. We also demonstrate excellent scalability of our GPU implementation up to hundreds of GPUs distributed on different compute nodes. In a first application to driven, sub-sonic turbulence, we highlight the accuracy advantages of high-order DG compared to traditional second-order accurate methods, and we stress the importance of physical viscosity for obtaining accurate velocity power spectra.

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M. Cernetic, V. Springel, T. Guillet, et. al.
Thu, 25 Aug 22
5/43

Comments: 26 pages, 22 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Similarities between characteristics of convective turbulence in confined and extended domains [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2208.09713


To understand turbulent convection at very high Rayleigh numbers typical of natural phenomena, computational studies in slender cells are an option if the needed resources have to be optimized within available limits. However, the accompanying horizontal confinement affects some properties of the flow. Here, we explore the characteristics of turbulent fluctuations in the velocity and temperature fields in a cylindrical convection cell of aspect ratio 0.1 by varying the Prandtl number $Pr$ between 0.1 and 200 at a fixed Rayleigh number $Ra = 3 \times 10^{10}$, and find that the fluctuations weaken with increasing $Pr$, quantitatively as in aspect ratio 25. The probability density function (PDF) of temperature fluctuations in the bulk region of the slender cell remains mostly Gaussian, but increasing departures occur as $Pr$ increases beyond unity. We assess the intermittency of the velocity field by computing the PDFs of velocity derivatives and of the kinetic energy dissipation rate, and find increasing intermittency as $Pr$ decreases. In the bulk region of convection, a common result applicable to the slender cell, large aspect ratio cells, as well as in 2D convection, is that the turbulent Prandtl number decreases as $Pr^{-1/3}$.

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A. Pandey, D. Krasnov, J. Schumacher, et. al.
Tue, 23 Aug 22
11/79

Comments: 13 pages, 16 figures

Computational Fluid Dynamics with the Coupled Discrete Unified Gas Kinetic Scheme (CDUGKS) [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2208.09132


In this paper, we introduce our open source implementation of the Coupled Discrete Unified Gas Kinetic Scheme (CDUGKS) of https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.98.053310, a phase space scheme capable of handling a wide range of flow regimes. We demonstrate its performance on several problems including a number of well known test problems from the astrophysical fluid dynamics literature such as the 1D Sod shock tube, 2D Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, 1D thermoacoustic wave, a triangular Gresho vortex, a sine wave velocity perturbation. For these problems, we show that the code can simulate flows ranging from the inviscid/Eulerian regime to the free-streaming regime, capturing shocks and emergent diffusive processes in the appropriate regimes. We also use a variety of Prandtl numbers to demonstrate the scheme’s ability to simulate different thermal conductivities at fixed viscosity. The scheme is second-order accurate in space and time and, unlike many solvers, uses a time step that is independent of the mean free path of the gas. Our code (MP-CDUGKS) is public under a CC0 1.0 Universal license and is available on https://github.com/alvarozamora/CDUGKS

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A. Zamora and T. Abel
Mon, 22 Aug 22
28/53

Comments: N/A

A mushy source for the geysers of Enceladus [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2208.06714


Enceladus is a primary target for astrobiology due to the salty plume ejecta measured by the Cassini spacecraft and the inferred subsurface ocean sustained by tidal heating. Sourcing the plumes via a direct connection from the ocean to the surface requires a fracture through the entire ice shell ($\sim$10 km). Here we explore an alternative mechanism in which shear heating within the shallower tiger stripe fractures produces partial melting in the ice shell, allowing the interstitial fluid to be ejected as geysers. We use a two-dimensional multiphase reactive transport model to simulate the thermomechanics of a mushy region generated by localized shear heating in a salty ice shell. From our model, we predict the temperature, porosity, melting rate, and liquid volume of an intrashell mushy zone surrounding a fracture. We find that there is sufficient brine volume within the mushy zone to sustain the geysers for $\sim250$ kyr, without additional melting, and that the rate of internal melting can match the observed ice ejection rate. The composition of the liquid brine within the mushy zone is, however, distinct from the ocean, due to partial melting. This shear heating mechanism for geyser formation applies to Enceladus and other moons and has implications for our understanding of the geophysical processes and astrobiological potential of icy satellites.

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C. Meyer, J. Buffo, F. Nimmo, et. al.
Tue, 16 Aug 22
3/74

Comments: 10 pages, 3 figures, 1 supplement (11 pages, 3 figures)

Do chaotic field lines cause fast reconnection in coronal loops? [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2208.06965


Over the past decade, Boozer has argued that three-dimensional (3D) magnetic reconnection fundamentally differs from two-dimensional (2D) reconnection due to the fact that the separation between any pair of neighboring field lines almost always increases exponentially over distance in a 3D magnetic field. This feature makes 3D field-line mapping chaotic and exponentially sensitive to small non-ideal effects; consequently, 3D reconnection can occur without intense current sheets. We test Boozer’s theory via ideal and resistive reduced magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the Boozer-Elder coronal loop model driven by sub-Alfv\’enic footpoint motions. Our simulation results do not support Boozer’s theory. The ideal simulation shows that Boozer and Elder significantly under-predict the intensity of current density due to missing terms in their reduced model equations. Furthermore, resistive simulations of varying Lundquist numbers show that the maximal current density scales linearly with the Lundquist number, as opposed to Boozer’s prediction of a logarithmic dependence.

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Y. Huang and A. Bhattacharjee
Tue, 16 Aug 22
36/74

Comments: N/A

Greater climate sensitivity and variability on TRAPPIST-1e than Earth [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2208.06297


The atmospheres of rocky exoplanets are close to being characterized by astronomical observations, in part due to the commissioning of the James Webb Space Telescope. These observations compel us to understand exoplanetary atmospheres, in the voyage to find habitable planets. With this aim, we investigate the effect that CO$_2$ partial pressure (pCO$_2$) has on exoplanets’ climate variability, by analyzing results from ExoCAM model simulations of the tidally locked TRAPPIST-1e exoplanet, an Earth-like aqua-planet and Earth itself. First, we relate the differences between the planets to their elementary parameters. Then, we compare the sensitivity of the Earth analogue and TRAPPIST-1e’s surface temperature and precipitation to pCO$_2$. Our simulations suggest that the climatology and extremes of TRAPPIST-1e’s temperature are $\sim$1.5 times more sensitive to pCO$_2$ relative to Earth. The precipitation sensitivity strongly depends on the specific region analyzed. Indeed, the precipitation near mid-latitude and equatorial sub-stellar regions of TRAPPIST-1e is more sensitive to pCO$_2$, and the precipitation sensitivity is $\sim$2 times larger in TRAPPIST-1e. A dynamical systems perspective, which provides information about how the atmosphere evolves in phase-space, provides additional insights. Notably, an increase in pCO$_2$, results in an increase in atmospheric persistence on both planets, and the persistence of TRAPPIST-1e is more sensitive to pCO$_2$ than Earth. We conclude that the climate of TRAPPIST-1e may be more sensitive to pCO$_2$, particularly on its dayside. This study documents a new pathway for understanding the effect that varying planetary parameters have on the climate variability of potentially habitable exoplanets and on Earth.

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A. Hochman, P. Luca and T. Komacek
Mon, 15 Aug 22
21/54

Comments: Accepted at ApJ

Solar-like to Antisolar Differential Rotation: A Geometric Interpretation [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2208.05591


The solar convection zone rotates differentially, with its equatorial region rotating more rapidly than the polar regions. This form of differential rotation, also observed in many other low-mass stars, is understood to arise when Coriolis effects are stronger than those associated with buoyant driving of the convection. When buoyancy dominates, a so-called antisolar state of differential rotation results, characterized by rapidly-rotating poles and a slow equator. The transition between these two states has been shown to occur when the intensity of these two forces is roughly equal or, equivalently, when the convective Rossby number of the system is unity. Here we consider an alternative view of the transition that relates this phenomenon to convective structure and convective-zone depth. Using a series of 3-D rotating convection-zone simulations, we demonstrate that the solar/antisolar transition occurs when the columnar convective structures characteristic of rotating convection attain a diameter roughly equivalent to the shell depth. When the characteristic convective wavelength exceeds twice the shell depth, we find that the coherent convective structures necessary to sustain an equatorward Reynolds stress are lost, and an antisolar state results. We conclude by presenting a force-balance analysis that relates this geometric interpretation of the transition to the convective-Rossby-number criteria identified in previous studies.

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M. Camisassa and N. Featherstone
Fri, 12 Aug 22
26/48

Comments: 16 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Conservation of Total Wave Action in the Expanding Solar Wind [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2206.01809


The conservation of wave action in moving plasmas has been well-known for over half a century. However, wave action is not conserved when multiple wave modes propagate and coexist close to degeneration condition (Sound speed equals Alfv\’en speed, i.e. plasma $\beta \sim 1$). Here we show that the violation of conservation is due to wave mode conversion, and that the total wave action summed over interacting modes is still conserved. Though the result is general, we focus on MHD waves and identify three distinctive mode conversion mechanisms, i.e. degeneracy, linear mode conversion, and resonance, and provide an intuitive physical picture for the mode conversion processes. We use 1D MHD simulations with the Expanding Box Model to simulate the nonlinear evolution of monochromatic MHD waves in the expanding solar wind. Simulation results validate the theory; total wave action therefore remains an interesting diagnostic for studies of waves and turbulence in the solar wind.

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Z. Huang, C. Shi, M. Velli, et. al.
Tue, 7 Jun 22
39/70

Comments: Accepted by ApJ

An Atlas of Convection in Main-Sequence Stars [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2206.00011


Convection is ubiquitous in stars and occurs under many different conditions. Here we explore convection in main-sequence stars through two lenses: dimensionless parameters arising from stellar structure and parameters which emerge from the application of mixing length theory. We first define each quantity in terms familiar both to the 1D stellar evolution community and the hydrodynamics community. We then explore the variation of these quantities across different convection zones, different masses, and different stages of main-sequence evolution. We find immense diversity across stellar convection zones. Convection occurs in thin shells, deep envelopes, and nearly-spherical cores; it can be efficient of inefficient, rotationally constrained or not, transsonic or deeply subsonic. This atlas serves as a guide for future theoretical and observational investigations by indicating which regimes of convection are active in a given star, and by describing appropriate model assumptions for numerical simulations.

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A. Jermyn, E. Anders, D. Lecoanet, et. al.
Thu, 2 Jun 22
41/57

Comments: 62 pages, 76 figures. All your favorite dimensionless numbers and then some. Submitted to ApJS

The driving mode of shock-driven turbulence [GA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.14417


Turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) is crucial in the process of star formation. Shocks produced by supernova explosions, jets, radiation from massive stars, or galactic spiral-arm dynamics are amongst the most common drivers of turbulence in the ISM. However, it is not fully understood how shocks drive turbulence, in particular whether shock driving is a more solenoidal(rotational, divergence-free) or a more compressive (potential, curl-free) mode of driving turbulence. The mode of turbulence driving has profound consequences for star formation, with compressive driving producing three times larger density dispersion, and an order of magnitude higher star formation rate than solenoidal driving. Here, we use hydrodynamical simulations of a shock inducing turbulent motions in a structured, multi-phase medium. This is done in the context of a laser-induced shock, propagating into a foam material, in preparation for an experiment to be performed at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Specifically, we analyse the density and velocity distributions in the shocked turbulent medium, and measure the turbulence driving parameter $b=(\sigma^{2 \Gamma}{\rho /\langle \rho \rangle}-1)^{1/2} (1-\sigma{\rho \langle \rho \rangle}^{-2})^{-1/2}\mathcal{M}^{-1}\Gamma^{-1/2}$ with the density dispersion $\sigma_{\rho / \langle \rho \rangle}$, the turbulent Mach number $\mathcal{M}$, and the polytropic exponent $\Gamma$. Purely solenoidal and purely compressive driving correspond to $b \sim 1/3$ and $b \sim 1$, respectively. Using simulations in which a shock is driven into a multi-phase medium with structures of different sizes and $\Gamma < 1$, we find $b \sim 1$ for all cases, showing that shock-driven turbulence is consistent with strongly compressive driving.

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S. Dhawalikar, C. Federrath, S. Davidovits, et. al.
Tue, 31 May 22
20/89

Comments: 18 pages, 15 figures

Magnetoclinicity Instability [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.14453


In strongly compressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, obliqueness between the large-scale density gradient and magnetic field gives an electromotive force mediated by density variance (intensity of density fluctuation). This effect is named “magnetoclinicity”, and is expected to play an important role in large-scale magnetic-field generation in astrophysical compressible turbulent flows. Analysis of large-scale instability due to the magnetoclinicity effect shows that the mean magnetic-field perturbation is destabilised at large scales in the vicinity of strong mean density gradient in the presence of density variance.

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N. Yokoi and S. Tobias
Tue, 31 May 22
38/89

Comments: 8 pages, 2 figures, iTi (interdisciplinary Turbulence initiative) 2021

Effect of Fluid Composition on a Jet Breaking Out of a Cocoon in Gamma-ray Bursts: A Relativistic de Laval Nozzle Treatment [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.15188


In this paper, we carry out a semi-analytic general relativistic study of a Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) jet that is breaking out of a cocoon or stellar envelope. We solve hydrodynamic equations with the relativistic equation of state that takes care of fluid composition. In short GRBs, a general relativistic approach is required to account for curved spacetime in strong gravity. The piercing of the jet through the cocoon resembles a de Laval nozzle and the jet may go through recollimation shock transitions. We show that the possibility of shock transition and the shock properties are sensitive to the matter composition and the cocoon strength. Obtained Lorentz factors in thermally driven jets comfortably reach a few $\times$10.

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M. Vyas
Tue, 31 May 22
80/89

Comments: Published in Universe, 21 Pages, 11 Figures

The competition between the hydrodynamic instability from noise and magnetorotational instability in the Keplerian disks [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.13230


We venture for the comparison between growth rates for magnetorotational instability (MRI) and hydrodynamics instability in the presence of an extra force in the local Keplerian accretion flow. The underlying model is described by the Orr-Sommerfeld and Squire equations in the presence of rotation, magnetic field and an extra force, plausibly noise with a nonzero mean. We obtain MRI using Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) approximation without extra force for purely vertical magnetic field and vertical wavevector of the perturbations. Expectedly, MRI is active within a range of magnetic field, which changes depending on the perturbation wavevector magnitude. Next, to check the effect of noise on the growth rates, a quartic dispersion relation has been obtained. Among those four solutions for growth rate, the one that reduces to MRI growth rate at the limit of vanishing mean of noise in the MRI active region of the magnetic field, is mostly dominated by MRI. However, in MRI inactive region, in the presence of noise the solution turns out to be unstable, which are almost independent of the magnetic field. Another growth rate, which is almost complementary to the previous one, leads to stability at the limit of vanishing noise. The remaining two growth rates, which correspond to the hydrodynamical growth rates at the limit of the vanishing magnetic field, are completely different from the MRI growth rate. More interestingly, the latter growth rates are larger than that of the MRI. If we consider viscosity, the growth rates decrease depending on the Reynolds number.

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S. Ghosh and B. Mukhopadhyay
Fri, 27 May 22
59/61

Comments: 13 pages, 19 figures, published in AIP Advances

Three-dimensional direct numerical simulation of free-surface magnetohydrodynamic wave turbulence [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.11516


We report on three-dimensional direct numerical simulation of wave turbulence on the free surface of a magnetic fluid subjected to an external horizontal magnetic field. A transition from capillarywave turbulence to anisotropic magneto-capillary wave turbulence is observed for an increasing field. At high enough field, wave turbulence becomes highly anisotropic, cascading mainly perpendicularly to the field direction, in good agreement with the prediction of a phenomenological model, and with anisotropic Alfv{\’e}n wave turbulence. Although surface waves on a magnetic fluid are different from Alfv{\’e}n waves in plasma, a strong analogy is found with similar wave spectrum scalings and similar magnetic-field dependent dispersionless wave velocities.

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E. Kochurin, G. Ricard, N. Zubarev, et. al.
Wed, 25 May 22
32/56

Comments: in press in Phys. Rev E (Letter). For Supplemental Material, see this http URL

Reconstruction of photospheric velocity fields from highly corrupted data [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.09846


The analysis of the photospheric velocity field is essential for understanding plasma turbulence in the solar surface, which may be responsible for driving processes such as magnetic reconnection, flares, wave propagation, particle acceleration, and coronal heating. Currently, the only available methods to estimate velocities at the solar photosphere transverse to an observer’s line of sight infer flows from differences in image structure in successive observations. Due to data noise, algorithms such as local correlation tracking (LCT) may lead to a vector field with wide gaps where no velocity vectors are provided. In this letter, a novel method for image inpainting of highly corrupted data is proposed and applied to the restoration of horizontal velocity fields in the solar photosphere. The restored velocity field preserves all the vector field components present in the original field. The method shows robustness when applied to both simulated and observational data.

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E. Rempel, R. Chertovskih, K. Davletshina, et. al.
Mon, 23 May 22
48/50

Comments: N/A

Reynolds number dependence of Lagrangian dispersion in direct numerical simulations of anisotropic magnetohydrodynamic turbulence [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.06879


Large-scale magnetic fields thread through the electrically conducting matter of the interplanetary and interstellar medium, stellar interiors, and other astrophysical plasmas, producing anisotropic flows with regions of high-Reynolds-number turbulence. It is common to encounter turbulent flows structured by a magnetic field with a strength approximately equal to the root-mean-square magnetic fluctuations. In this work, direct numerical simulations of anisotropic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence influenced by such a magnetic field are conducted for a series of cases that have identical resolution, and increasing grid sizes up to $2048^3$. The result is a series of closely comparable simulations at Reynolds numbers ranging from 1,400 up to 21,000. We investigate the influence of the Reynolds number from the Lagrangian viewpoint by tracking fluid particles and calculating single-particle and two-particle statistics. The influence of Alfv\’enic fluctuations and the fundamental anisotropy on the MHD turbulence in these statistics is discussed. Single-particle diffusion curves exhibit mildly superdiffusive behaviors that differ in the direction aligned with the magnetic field and the direction perpendicular to it. Competing alignment processes affect the dispersion of particle pairs, in particular at the beginning of the inertial subrange of time scales. Scalings for relative dispersion, which become clearer in the inertial subrange for larger Reynolds number, can be observed that are steeper than indicated by the Richardson prediction.

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J. Pratt, A. Busse and W. Müller
Tue, 17 May 22
32/95

Comments: 23 pages, 11 figures

Turbulence in Two-Dimensional Relativistic Hydrodynamic Systems with a Lattice Boltzmann Model [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.04658


Using a Lattice Boltzmann hydrodynamic computational modeler to simulate relativistic fluid systems we explore turbulence in two-dimensional relativistic flows. We first a give a pedagogical description of the phenomenon of turbulence and its characteristics in a two-dimensional system. The classical Lattice Boltzmann Method and its extension to relativistic fluid systems is then described. The model is tested against a system incorporating a random stirring force in k-space and then applied to a realistic sample of graphene.
Part I: We investigate the relativistic adaptation of the Lattice Boltzmann Method reproducing a turbulent, two-dimensional, massless hydrodynamic system with a zero-averaged stirring force randomly generated in momentum space. The numeric formulation is evaluated and the flow characteristics produced are compared to properties of classical turbulence. The model can reasonably be expected to offer quantitative simulations of charged fluid flows in two-dimensional relativistic fluid systems.
Part II: At low Reynolds numbers, the wind flow in the wake of a single wind turbine is generally not turbulent. However, turbines in wind farms affect each other’s wakes so that a turbulent flow can arise. An analogue of this effect for the massless charge carrier flow around obstacles in graphene is outlined. We use a relativistic hydrodynamic simulation to analyze the flow in a sample containing impurities. Depending on the density of impurities in the sample, we indeed find evidence for a potentially turbulent flow and discuss experimental consequences.

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M. Watson
Wed, 11 May 22
31/60

Comments: 90 pages, 23 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2101.06187, arXiv:2202.07839

Impact of radial truncation on global 2D hydrodynamic simulations for a Sun-like model [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.04270


Stellar convection is a non-local process responsible for the transport of heat and chemical species. It can lead to enhanced mixing through convective overshooting and excitation of internal gravity waves (IGWs) at convective boundaries. The relationship between these processes is still not well understood and requires global hydrodynamic simulations to capture the important large-scale dynamics. The steep stratification in stellar interiors suggests that the radial extent of such simulations can affect the convection dynamics, the IGWs in the stably stratified radiative zone, and the depth of the overshooting layer. We investigate these effects using two-dimensional global simulations performed with the fully compressible stellar hydrodynamics code MUSIC. We compare eight different radial truncations of the same solar-like stellar model evolved over approximately 400 convective turnover times. We find that the location of the inner boundary has an insignificant effect on the convection dynamics, the convective overshooting and the travelling IGWs. We relate this to the background conditions at the lower convective boundary which are unaffected by the truncation, as long as a significantly deep radiative layer is included in the simulation domain. However, we find that extending the outer boundary by only a few percent of the stellar radius significantly increases the velocity and temperature perturbations in the convection zone, the overshooting depth, the power and the spectral slope of the IGWs. The effect is related to the background conditions at the outer boundary, which are determined in essence by the hydrostatic stratification and the given luminosity.

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D. Vlaykov, I. Baraffe, T. Constantino, et. al.
Tue, 10 May 22
52/70

Comments: Accepted in MNRAS 2022 April 29

Density filamentation nonlinearly driven by the Weibel instability in relativistic beam plasmas [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.03795


Density filamentation has been observed in many beam-plasma simulations and experiments. Because current filamentation is a pure transverse mode, charge density filamentation cannot be produced directly by the current filamentation process. To explain this phenomenon, several mechanisms are proposed such as the coupling of the Weibel instability to the two-stream instability, coupling to the Langmuir wave, differences in thermal velocities between the beam and return currents, the magnetic pressure gradient force, etc. In this paper, it is shown that the gradient of the Lorentz factor can, in fact, represent the nonlinear behavior of a plasma fluid and further that the nonuniform Lorentz factor distribution can give rise to electrostatic fields and density filaments. Simulation results together with theoretical analyses are presented.

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C. Huynh, C. Ryu and C. Kim
Tue, 10 May 22
70/70

Comments: N/A

Magnetized oscillatory double-diffusive convection [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.02251


We study the properties of oscillatory double-diffusive convection (ODDC) in the presence of a uniform vertical background magnetic field. ODDC takes place in stellar regions that are unstable according to the Schwarzschild criterion and stable according to the Ledoux criterion (sometimes called semiconvective regions), which are often predicted to reside just outside the core of intermediate-mass main sequence stars. Previous hydrodynamic studies of ODDC have shown that the basic instability saturates into a state of weak wave-like convection, but that a secondary instability can sometimes transform it into a state of layered convection, where layers then rapidly merge and grow until the entire region is fully convective. We find that magnetized ODDC has very similar properties overall, with some important quantitative differences. A linear stability analysis reveals that the fastest-growing modes are unaffected by the field, but that other modes are. Numerically, the magnetic field is seen to influence the saturation of the basic instability, overall reducing the turbulent fluxes of temperature and composition. This in turn affects layer formation, usually delaying it, and occasionally suppressing it entirely for sufficiently strong fields. Further work will be needed, however, to determine the field strength above which layer formation is actually suppressed in stars. Potential observational implications are briefly discussed.

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A. Sanghi, A. Fraser, E. Tian, et. al.
Fri, 6 May 22
26/55

Comments: 23 pages, single column, 6 figures, submitted to Astrophysical Journal

Radial Trapping of Thermal Rossby Waves within the Convection Zones of Low-Mass Stars [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.02346


We explore how thermal Rossby waves propagate within the gravitationally stratified atmosphere of a low-mass star with an outer convective envelope. Under the conditions of slow, rotationally constrained dynamics, we derive a local dispersion relation for atmospheric waves in a fully compressible stratified fluid. This dispersion relation describes the zonal and radial propagation of acoustic waves and gravito-inertial waves. Thermal Rossby waves are just one class of prograde-propagating gravito-inertial wave that manifests when the buoyancy frequency is small compared to the rotation rate of the star. From this dispersion relation, we identify the radii at which waves naturally reflect and demonstrate how thermal Rossby waves can be trapped radially in a waveguide that permits free propagation in the longitudinal direction. We explore this trapping further by presenting analytic solutions for thermal Rossby waves within an isentropically stratified atmosphere that models a zone of efficient convective heat transport. We find that within such an atmosphere, waves of short zonal wavelength have a wave cavity that is radially thin and confined within the outer reaches of the convection zone near the star’s equator. The same behavior is evinced by the thermal Rossby waves that appear at convective onset in numerical simulations of convection within rotating spheres. Finally, we suggest that stable thermal Rossby waves could exist in the lower portion of the Sun’s convection zone, despite that region’s unstable stratification. For long wavelengths, the Sun’s rotation rate is sufficiently rapid to stabilize convective motions and the resulting overstable convective modes are identical to thermal Rossby waves.

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B. Hindman and R. Jain
Fri, 6 May 22
41/55

Comments: 38 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

Fingering convection in the stably-stratified layers of planetary cores [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.01761


Stably-stratified layers may be present at the top of the electrically-conducting fluid layers of many planets either because the temperature gradient is locally subadiabatic or because a stable composition gradient is maintained by the segregation of chemical elements. Here we study the double-diffusive processes taking place in such a stable layer, considering the case of Mercury’s core where the temperature gradient is stable but the composition gradient is unstable over a 800km-thick layer. The large difference in the molecular diffusivities leads to the development of buoyancy-driven instabilities that drive radial flows known as fingering convection. We model fingering convection using hydrodynamical simulations in a rotating spherical shell and varying the rotation rate and the stratification strength. For small Rayleigh numbers (i.e. weak background temperature and composition gradients), fingering convection takes the form of columnar flows aligned with the rotation axis and with an azimuthal size comparable with the layer thickness. For larger Rayleigh numbers, the flows retain a columnar structure but the azimuthal size is drastically reduced leading to thin sheet-like structures that are elongated in the meridional direction. The azimuthal length decreases when the thermal stratification increases, following closely the scaling law expected from the linear non-rotating planar theory (Stern, 1960). We find that the radial flows always remain laminar with local Reynolds number of order 1-10. Equatorially-symmetric zonal flows form due to latitudinal variations of the axisymmetric composition. The zonal velocity exceeds the non-axisymmetric velocities at the largest Rayleigh numbers. We discuss plausible implications for planetary magnetic fields.

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C. Guervilly
Thu, 5 May 22
44/51

Comments: submitted for publication to JGR: Planets

Critical Balance and Scaling of Stably Stratified Turbulence at Low Prandtl Number [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.01540


We extend the scaling relations of stably stratified turbulence from the geophysical regime of unity Prandtl number to the astrophysical regime of extremely small Prandtl number applicable to stably stratified regions of stars and gas giants. A transition to a new turbulent regime is found to occur when the Prandtl number drops below the inverse of the buoyancy Reynolds number, i.e. $PrRb<1$, which signals a shift of the dominant balance in the buoyancy equation. Application of critical balance arguments then derives new predictions for the anisotropic energy spectrum and dominant balance of the Boussinesq equations in the $PrRb\ll1$ regime. We find that all the standard scaling relations from the unity $Pr$ limit of stably stratified turbulence simply carry over if the Froude number, $Fr$, is replaced by a modified Froude number, $Fr_M\equiv Fr/(PrRb)^{1/4}$. The geophysical and astrophysical regimes are thus smoothly connected across the $PrRb=1$ transition. Applications to vertical transport in stellar radiative zones and modification to the instability criterion for the small-scale dynamo are discussed.

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V. Skoutnev
Wed, 4 May 22
34/48

Comments: N/A

Mechanism for Sequestering Magnetic Energy at Large Scales in Shear-Flow Turbulence [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2205.01298


Straining of magnetic fields by large-scale shear flow, generally assumed to lead to intensification and generation of small scales, is re-examined in light of the persistent observation of large-scale magnetic fields in astrophysics. It is shown that in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, unstable shear flows have the unexpected effect of sequestering magnetic energy at large scales, due to counteracting straining motion of nonlinearly excited large-scale stable eigenmodes. This effect is quantified via dissipation rates, energy transfer rates, and visualizations of magnetic field evolution by artificially removing the stable modes.

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B. Tripathi, A. Fraser, P. Terry, et. al.
Wed, 4 May 22
48/48

Comments: Letter submitted to Physics of Plasmas; A simulation movie embedded in Fig. 5; Supplementary text available at this https URL

Coupling between turbulence and solar-like oscillations: A combined Lagrangian PDF/SPH approach. II – Mode driving, damping and modal surface effect [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2204.13367


The first paper of this series established a linear stochastic wave equation for solar-like p-modes, correctly taking the effect of turbulence thereon into account. In this second paper, we aim at deriving simultaneous expressions for the excitation rate, damping rate, and modal surface effect associated with any given p-mode, as an explicit function of the statistical properties of the turbulent velocity field. We reduce the stochastic wave equation to complex amplitude equations for the normal oscillating modes of the system. We then derive the equivalent Fokker-Planck equation for the real amplitudes and phases of all the oscillating modes of the system simultaneously. The effect of the finite-memory time of the turbulent fluctuations (comparable to the period of the modes) on the modes themselves is consistently and rigorously accounted for, by means of the simplified amplitude equation formalism. This formalism accounts for mutual linear mode coupling in full, and we then turn to the special single-mode case. This allows us to derive evolution equations for the mean energy and mean phase of each mode, from which the excitation rate, the damping rate, and the modal surface effect naturally arise.
We show that the expression for the excitation rate of the modes is identical to previous results obtained through a different modelling approach, thus supporting the validity of the formalism presented here. We also recover the fact that the damping rate and modal surface effect correspond to the real and imaginary part of the same single complex quantity. We explicitly separate the different physical contributions to these observables, in particular the turbulent pressure contribution and the joint effect of the pressure-rate-of-strain correlation and the turbulent dissipation. We show that the former dominates for high-frequency modes and the latter for low-frequency modes.

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J. Philidet, K. Belkacem and M. Goupil
Fri, 29 Apr 22
55/57

Comments: Accepted for publication in A&A. 23 pages, 2 figures

Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence: Chandrasekhar's Contributions \& Beyond [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2204.12799


In the period of 1948-1955, Chandrasekhar wrote four papers on magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence, which are the first set of papers in the area. The field moved on following these pioneering efforts. In this paper, I will briefly describe important works of MHD turbulence, starting from those by Chandrasekhar.

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M. Verma
Thu, 28 Apr 22
8/70

Comments: To appear in J. Astrophys. Astr

Isotope velocimetry: Experimental and theoretical demonstration of the potential importance of gas flow for isotope fractionation during evaporation of protoplanetary material [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2204.13020


We use new experiments and a theoretical analysis of the results to show that the isotopic fractionation associated with laser-heating aerodynamic levitation experiments is consistent with the velocity of flowing gas as the primary control on the fractionation. The new Fe and Mg isotope data are well explained where the gas is treated as a low-viscosity fluid that flows around the molten spheres with high Reynolds numbers and minimal drag. A relationship between the ratio of headwind velocity to thermal velocity and saturation is obtained on the basis of this analysis. The recognition that it is the ratio of flow velocity to thermal velocity that controls fractionation allows for extrapolation to other environments in which molten rock encounters gas with appreciable headwinds. In this way, in some circumstances, the degree of isotope fractionation attending evaporation is as much a velocimeter as it is a barometer.

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E. Young, C. Macris, H. Tang, et. al.
Thu, 28 Apr 22
12/70

Comments: Accepted for publication in Earth and Planetary Science Letters

Taylor's Frozen-in Hypothesis for Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence and Solar Wind [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2204.12790


In hydrodynamics, Taylor’s frozen-in hypothesis connects the wavenumber spectrum to the frequency spectrum of a time series measured in real space. In this paper, we generalize Taylor’s hypothesis to magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. We analytically derive one-point two-time correlation functions for Els\”{a}sser variables whose Fourier transform yields the corresponding frequency spectra, $ E^\pm(f) $. We show that $ E^\pm(f) \propto |{\bf U}_0 \mp {\bf B}_0|^{2/3} $ in Kolmogorov-like model, and $ E^\pm(f) \propto (B_0 |{\bf U}_0 \mp {\bf B}_0|)^{1/2} $ in Iroshnikov-Kraichnan model, where $ {\bf U}_0, {\bf B}_0$ are the mean velocity and mean magnetic fields respectively.

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M. Verma
Thu, 28 Apr 22
18/70

Comments: 12 pages

Layer formation in a stably-stratified fluid cooled from above. Towards an analog for Jupiter and other gas giants [EPA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2204.12643


It is theorized that in gas giants, an outer convection zone advances into the interior as the surface cools, and multiple convective layers form beneath that convective front. To study layer formation below an outer convection zone in a similar scenario, we investigate the evolution of a stably-stratified fluid with a linear composition gradient that is constantly being cooled from above. We use the Boussinesq approximation in a series of 2D simulations at low and high Prandtl numbers ($\mathrm{Pr} = 0.5$ and 7), initialized with different temperature stratifications, and cooled at different rates. We find that simulations initialized with an isothermal temperature profile form multiple convective layers at $\mathrm{Pr} = 7$. These layers result from an instability of a diffusive thermal boundary layer below the outer convection zone. At low Pr, layers do not form. Double-diffusive instabilities drive the fluid below the outer convection zone into a state of turbulent diffusion rather than layered convection. Changing the initial distribution of temperature to decrease linearly with depth results in lower values of the inverse density ratio $R^{-1}\equiv S_{z}/T_{z}$ (given the normalization in this work), and consequently, the spontaneous formation of multiple convective layers at low Pr. For the stratifications used in this study, on the long-term the composition gradient is an ineffective barrier against the propagation of the outer convection zone and the entire fluid becomes fully-mixed, whether layers form or not. Our results challenge 1D evolutionary models of gas giant planets, which predict that layers are long-lived and that the outer convective envelope stops advancing inwards. We discuss what is needed for future work to build more realistic models.

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J. Fuentes, A. Cumming and E. Anders
Thu, 28 Apr 22
51/70

Comments: Submitted to PR Fluids, comments are welcome 🙂

Identification of inertial modes in the solar convection zone [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2204.13007


The observation of global acoustic waves (p modes) in the Sun has been key to unveil its internal structure and dynamics. A different kind of waves, known as sectoral Rossby modes, have been observed and identified relatively recently, which potentially opens the door to probe internal processes that are inaccessible through p mode helioseismology. Yet another set of waves, appearing as retrograde-propagating, equatorially antisymmetric vorticity waves, have been observed very recently but their identification remained elusive. Here, through a numerical model implemented as an eigenvalue problem, we provide evidence supporting the identification of those waves as inertial eigenmodes, of a class distinct from Rossby modes, with substantial amplitudes deep in the solar convective zone. We also suggest that the signature of tesseral Rossby modes might be present in the recent observational data.

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S. Triana, G. Guerrero, A. Barik, et. al.
Thu, 28 Apr 22
65/70

Comments: 9 pages, 5 figures, submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters

Resistive instabilities in sinusoidal shear flows with a streamwise magnetic field [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2204.10875


We investigate the linear stability of a sinusoidal shear flow with an initially uniform streamwise magnetic field in the framework of incompressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) with finite resistivity and viscosity. This flow is known to be unstable to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in the hydrodynamic case. The same is true in ideal MHD, where dissipation is neglected, provided the magnetic field strength does not exceed a critical threshold beyond which magnetic tension stabilizes the flow. Here, we demonstrate that including viscosity and resistivity introduces two new modes of instability. One of these modes, which we call a resistively-unstable Alfv\’en wave due to its connection to shear Alfv\’en waves, exists for any nonzero magnetic field strength as long as the magnetic Prandtl number $Pm < 1$. We present a reduced model for this instability that reveals its excitation mechanism to be the negative eddy viscosity of periodic shear flows described by Dubrulle & Frisch (1991). Finally, we demonstrate numerically that this mode saturates in a quasi-stationary state dominated by counter-propagating solitons.

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A. Fraser, I. Cresswell and P. Garaud
Tue, 26 Apr 22
47/74

Comments: 23 pages, 10 figures, submitted to JFM

Quasi-spherical hydrodynamic adiabatic accretion in a Keplerian potential [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2204.08448


We present an exact $\gamma=5/3$ spherical accretion model which modifies the Bondi boundary condition of $\rho \to const.$ as $r\to \infty$ to one where $\rho \to 0$ as $r \to \infty$. This change allows for simple power law solutions on the density and infall velocity fields, ranging from a cold empty free-fall condition where pressure tends to zero, to a hot hydrostatic equilibrium limit with no infall velocity. As in the case of the Bondi solution, a maximum accretion rate appears. As in the $\gamma=5/3$ case of the Bondi solution, no sonic radius appears, this time however, because the flow is always characterised by a constant Mach number. This number equals 1 for the case of the maximum accretion rate, diverges towards the cold empty state, and becomes subsonic towards the hydrostatic equilibrium limit. Deviations from sphericity are then explored through an analytic perturbative analysis. The perturbed solution yields a rich phenomenology through density and radial velocity fields in terms of Legendre polynomials, which we begin to explore for simple angular velocity boundary conditions having zeros on the plane and pole. Infall/outflow solutions appear for the sub-sonic parameter region, closely resembling the outputs of recent numerical experiments. The strong density gradients in these cases result in significant pressure gradients which accelerate the polar outflows to many times the local escape velocity, well within the validity range of the perturbative analysis. Our results could complement our understanding of the origin of outflows in a variety of astrophysical settings surrounding infall situations, through purely hydrodynamical physics.

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X. Hernandez and L. Nasser
Tue, 19 Apr 22
14/52

Comments: 7 pages, 4 figures