892 research outputs found
Features of collisionless turbulence in the intracluster medium from simulated Faraday Rotation maps
Observations of the intracluster medium (ICM) in galaxy clusters suggest for
the presence of turbulence and the magnetic fields existence has been proved
through observations of Faraday Rotation and synchrotron emission. The ICM is
also known to be filled by a rarefied weakly collisional plasma. In this work
we study the possible signatures left on Faraday Rotation maps by collisionless
instabilities. For this purpose we use a numerical approach to investigate the
dynamics of the turbulence in collisionless plasmas based on an
magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) formalism taking into account different levels of
pressure anisotropy. We consider models covering the sub/super-Alfv\'enic and
trans/supersonic regimes, one of them representing the fiducial conditions
corresponding to the ICM. From the simulated models we compute Faraday Rotation
maps and analyze several statistical indicators in order to characterize the
magnetic field structure and compare the results obtained with the
collisionless model to those obtained using standard collisional MHD framework.
We find that important imprints of the pressure anisotropy prevails in the
magnetic field and also manifest in the associated Faraday Rotation maps which
evidence smaller correlation lengths in the collisionless MHD case. These
points are remarkably noticeable for the case mimicking the conditions
prevailing in ICM. Nevertheless, in this study we have neglected the decrease
of pressure anisotropy due to the feedback of the instabilities that naturally
arise in collisionless plasmas at small scales. This decrease may not affect
the statistical imprint differences described above, but should be examined
elsewhere.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figures, MNRAS accepte
Dynamo in the Intra-Cluster Medium: Simulation of CGL-MHD Turbulent Dynamo
The standard magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) description of the plasma in the hot,
magnetized gas of the intra-cluster (ICM) medium is not adequate because it is
weakly collisional. In such collisionless magnetized gas, the microscopic
velocity distribution of the particles is not isotropic, giving rise to kinetic
effects on the dynamical scales. These kinetic effects could be important in
understanding the turbulence, as so as the amplification and maintenance of the
magnetic fields in the ICM. It is possible to formulate fluid models for
collisonless or weakly collisional gas by introducing modifications in the MHD
equations. These models are often referred as kinetic MHD (KMHD). Using a KMHD
model based on the CGL-closure, which allows the adiabatic evolution of the two
components of the pressure tensor (the parallel and perpendicular components
with respect to the local magnetic field), we performed 3D numerical
simulations of forced turbulence in order to study the amplification of an
initially weak seed magnetic field. We found that the growth rate of the
magnetic energy is comparable to that of the ordinary MHD turbulent dynamo, but
the magnetic energy saturates in a level smaller than of the MHD case. We also
found that a necessary condition for the dynamo works is to impose limits to
the anisotropy of the pressure.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, 274 IAU Symposium: Advances in Plasma Astrophysic
The role of turbulent magnetic reconnection on the formation of rotationally supported protostellar disks
The formation of protostellar disks out of molecular cloud cores is still not
fully understood. Under ideal MHD conditions, the removal of angular momentum
from the disk progenitor by the typically embedded magnetic field may prevent
the formation of a rotationally supported disk during the main protostellar
accretion phase of low mass stars. This has been known as the magnetic braking
problem and the most investigated mechanism to alleviate this problem and help
removing the excess of magnetic flux during the star formation process, the so
called ambipolar diffusion (AD), has been shown to be not sufficient to weaken
the magnetic braking at least at this stage of the disk formation. In this
work, motivated by recent progress in the understanding of magnetic
reconnection in turbulent environments, we appeal to the diffusion of magnetic
field mediated by magnetic reconnection as an alternative mechanism for
removing magnetic flux. We investigate numerically this mechanism during the
later phases of the protostellar disk formation and show its high efficiency.
By means 3D MHD simulations, we show that this mechanism is able to transport
magnetic flux to the outskirts of the disk progenitor at time scales compatible
with the collapse, allowing the formation of a rotationally supported disk
around the protostar of dimensions ~100 AU. Since MHD turbulence is expected to
be present in protostellar disks, this is a natural mechanism for removing
magnetic flux excess and allowing the formation of these disks. This mechanism
dismiss the necessity of postulating a hypothetical increase of the Ohmic
resistivity as discussed in the literature. Together with our earlier work
which showed that magnetic flux removal from molecular cloud cores is very
efficient, this work calls for reconsidering the relative role of AD for the
processes of star and planet formation.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
MHD turbulence-Star Formation Connection: from pc to kpc scales
The transport of magnetic flux to outside of collapsing molecular clouds is a
required step to allow the formation of stars. Although ambipolar diffusion is
often regarded as a key mechanism for that, it has been recently argued that it
may not be efficient enough. In this review, we discuss the role that MHD
turbulence plays in the transport of magnetic flux in star forming flows. In
particular, based on recent advances in the theory of fast magnetic
reconnection in turbulent flows, we will show results of three-dimensional
numerical simulations that indicate that the diffusion of magnetic field
induced by turbulent reconnection can be a very efficient mechanism, especially
in the early stages of cloud collapse and star formation. To conclude, we will
also briefly discuss the turbulence-star formation connection and feedback in
different astrophysical environments: from galactic to cluster of galaxy
scales.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 274 IAU Symposium: Advances in Plasma
Astrophysic
The role of pressure anisotropy in the turbulent intracluster medium
In low-density plasma environments, such as the intracluster medium (ICM),
the Larmour frequency is much larger than the ion-ion collision frequency. In
such a case, the thermal pressure becomes anisotropic with respect to the
magnetic field orientation and the evolution of the turbulent gas is more
correctly described by a kinetic approach. A possible description of these
collisionless scenarios is given by the so-called kinetic magnetohydrodynamic
(KMHD) formalism, in which particles freely stream along the field lines, while
moving with the field lines in the perpendicular direction. In this way a
fluid-like behavior in the perpendicular plane is restored. In this work, we
study fast growing magnetic fluctuations in the smallest scales which operate
in the collisionless plasma that fills the ICM. In particular, we focus on the
impact of a particular evolution of the pressure anisotropy and its
implications for the turbulent dynamics of observables under the conditions
prevailing in the ICM. We present results from numerical simulations and
compare the results which those obtained using an MHD formalism.Comment: 7 pages, 14 figures, Journal of Physics: Conference Serie
Collapse of Turbulent Cores and Reconnection Diffusion
For a molecular cloud clump to form stars some transport of magnetic flux is
required from the denser, inner regions to the outer regions of the cloud,
otherwise this can prevent the collapse. Fast magnetic reconnection which takes
place in the presence of turbulence can induce a process of reconnection
diffusion (RD). Extending earlier numerical studies of reconnection diffusion
in cylindrical clouds, we consider more realistic clouds with spherical
gravitational potentials and also account for the effects of the gas
self-gravity. We demonstrate that within our setup RD is efficient. We have
also identified the conditions under which RD becomes strong enough to make an
initially subcritical cloud clump supercritical and induce its collapse. Our
results indicate that the formation of a supercritical core is regulated by a
complex interplay between gravity, self-gravity, the magnetic field strength
and nearly transonic and trans-Alfv\'enic turbulence, confirming that RD is
able to remove magnetic flux from collapsing clumps, but only a few of them
become nearly critical or supercritical, sub-Alfv\'enic cores, which is
consistent with the observations. Besides, we have found that the supercritical
cores built up in our simulations develop a predominantly helical magnetic
field geometry which is also consistent with observations. Finally, we have
evaluated the effective values of the turbulent reconnection diffusion
coefficient and found that they are much larger than the numerical diffusion,
especially for initially trans-Alfv\'enic clouds, ensuring that the detected
magnetic flux removal is due to to the action of the RD rather than to
numerical diffusivity.Comment: 24 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in the Ap
Features of collisionless turbulence in the intracluster medium from simulated Faraday rotation maps - II. The effects of instabilities feedback
Statistical analysis of Faraday rotation measure (RM) maps of the intracluster medium (ICM) of galaxy clusters provides a unique tool to evaluate some spatial features of the magnetic fields there. Its combination with numerical simulations of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence allows the diagnosis of the ICM turbulence. Being the ICM plasma weakly collisional, the thermal velocity distribution of the particles naturally develops anisotropies as a consequence of the large-scale motions and the conservation of the magnetic moment of the charged particles. A previous study (Paper I) analysed the impact of large-scale thermal anisotropy on the statistics of RM maps synthesized from simulations of turbulence; these simulations employed a collisionless MHD model that considered a tensor pressure with uniform anisotropy. In this work, we extend that analysis to a collisionless MHD model in which the thermal anisotropy develops according to the conservation of the magnetic moment of the thermal particles. We also consider the effect of anisotropy relaxation caused by the microscale mirror and firehose instabilities. We show that if the relaxation rate is fast enough to keep the anisotropy limited by the threshold values of the instabilities, the dispersion and power spectrum of the RM maps are indistinguishable from those obtained from collisional MHD. Otherwise, there is a reduction in the dispersion and steepening of the power spectrum of the RM maps (compared to the collisional case). Considering the first scenario, the use of collisional MHD simulations for modelling the RM statistics in the ICM becomes better justified.Fil: Lima, R. Santos. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Pino, E. M. de Gouveia Dal. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Falceta Gonçalves, D. A.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Nakwacki, Maria Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciónes Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio. - Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio; ArgentinaFil: Kowal, G.. Universidade Cruzeiro Do Sul; . Universidade de Sao Paulo; Brasi
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