Anisotropic Thermal Conduction in Supernova Remnants: Relevance to Hot Gas Filling Factors in the Magnetized ISM

We explore the importance of anisotropic thermal conduction in the evolution of supernova remnants via numerical simulations. The mean temperature of the bubble of hot gas is decreased by a factor of ~3 compared to simulations without thermal conduction, together with an increase in the mean density of hot gas by a similar factor. Thus, thermal conduction greatly reduces the volume of hot gas produced over the life of the remnant. This underscores the importance of thermal conduction in estimating the hot gas filling fraction and emissivities in high-stage ions in Galactic and proto-galactic ISMs.Comment: Submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters. 4 pages, 3 figure

Dust Stratification in Young Circumstellar Disks

We present high-resolution infrared spectra of four YSOs (T Tau N, T Tau S, RNO 91, and HL Tau). The spectra exhibit narrow absorption lines of 12CO, 13CO, and C18O as well as broad emission lines of gas phase12CO. The narrow absorption lines of CO are shown to originate from the colder circumstellar gas. We find that the line of sight gas column densities resulting from the CO absorption lines are much higher than expected for the measured extinction for each source and suggest the gas to dust ratio is measuring the dust settling and/or grain coagulation in these extended disks. We provide a model of turbulence, dust settling and grain growth to explain the results. The techniques presented here allow us to provide some observationally-motivated bounds on accretion disk alpha in protostellar systems

Direct Evidence for Two-Fluid Effects in Molecular Clouds

We present a combination of theoretical and simulation-based examinations of the role of two-fluid ambipolar drift on molecular line widths. The dissipation provided by ion-neutral interactions can produce a significant difference between the widths of neutral molecules and the widths of ionic species, comparable to the sound speed. We demonstrate that Alfven waves and certain families of magnetosonic waves become strongly damped on scales comparable to the ambipolar diffusion scale. Using the RIEMANN code, we simulate two-fluid turbulence with ionization fractions ranging from 10^{-2} to 10^{-6}. We show that the wave damping causes the power spectrum of the ion velocity to drop below that of the neutral velocity when measured on a relative basis. Following a set of motivational observations by Li & Houde (2008), we produce synthetic line width-size relations that shows a difference between the ion and neutral line widths, illustrating that two-fluid effects can have an observationally detectable role in modifying the MHD turbulence in the clouds.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, submitted to MNRA

Phase vortices from a Young's three-pinhole interferometer

An analysis is presented of the phase vortices generated in the far field, by an arbitrary arrangement of three monochromatic point sources of complex spherical waves. In contrast with the case of three interfering plane waves, in which an infinitely-extended vortex lattice is generated, the spherical sources generate a finite number of phase vortices. Analytical expressions for the vortex core locations are developed and shown to have a convenient representation in a discrete parameter space. Our analysis may be mapped onto the case of a coherently-illuminated Young's interferometer, in which the screen is punctured by three rather than two pinholes.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, REVTeX4, Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Bogomol'nyi Limit For Magnetic Vortices In Rotating Superconductor

This work is the sequel of a previous investigation of stationary and cylindrically symmetric vortex configurations for simple models representing an incompressible non-relativistic superconductor in a rigidly rotating background. In the present paper, we carry out our analysis with a generalized Ginzburg-Landau description of the superconductor, which provides a prescription for the radial profile of the normal density within the vortex. Within this framework, it is shown that the Bogomol'nyi limit condition marking the boundary between type I and type II behavior is unaffected by the rotation of the background.Comment: 7 pages, uses RevTeX, submitted to Phys.Rev.

Gravitational Collapse of Filamentary Magnetized Molecular Clouds

We develop models for the self-similar collapse of magnetized isothermal cylinders. We find solutions for the case of a fluid with a constant toroidal flux-to-mass ratio (Gamma_phi=constant) and the case of a fluid with a constant gas to magnetic pressure ratio (beta=constant). In both cases, we find that a low magnetization results in density profiles that behave as rho ~ r^{-4} at large radii, and at high magnetization we find density profiles that behave as rho ~ r^{-2}. This density behaviour is the same as for hydrostatic filamentary structures, suggesting that density measurements alone cannot distinguish between hydrostatic and collapsing filaments--velocity measurements are required. Our solutions show that the self-similar radial velocity behaves as v_r ~ r during the collapse phase, and that unlike collapsing self-similar spheres, there is no subsequent accretion (i.e. expansion-wave) phase. We also examine the fragmentation properties of these cylinders, and find that in both cases, the presence of a toroidal field acts to strengthen the cylinder against fragmentation. Finally, the collapse time scales in our models are shorter than the fragmentation time scales. Thus, we anticipate that highly collapsed filaments can form before they are broken into pieces by gravitational fragmentation.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, accepted to Ap

Simulations of Mixed Morphology Supernova Remnants With Anisotropic Thermal Conduction

We explore the role of anisotropic thermal conduction on the evolution of supernova remnants through interstellar media with a range of densities via numerical simulations. We find that a remnant expanding in a dense environment can produce centre-bright hard x-ray emission within 20 kyr, and centre-bright soft x-ray emission within 60 kyr of the supernova event. In a more tenuous environment, the appearance of a centre-bright structure in hard x-rays is delayed until about 60 kyr. The soft x-ray emission from such a remnant may not become centre bright during its observable lifetime. This can explain the observations that show that mixed-morphology supernova remnants preferentially occur close to denser, molecular environments. Remnants expanding into denser environments tend to be smaller, making it easier for thermal conduction to make larger changes in the temperatures of their hot gas bubbles. We show that the lower temperatures make it very favorable to use high-stage ions as diagnostics of the hot gas bubbles in SNRs. In particular, the distribution of O VIII transitions from shell-bright at early epochs to centre-bright at later epochs in the evolution of an SNR expanding in a dense ISM when the physics of thermal conduction is included.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Monthly Notice

A Two-Fluid Method for Ambipolar Diffusion

We present a semi-implicit method for isothermal two-fluid ion-neutral ambipolar drift that is second-order accurate in space and time. The method has been implemented in the RIEMANN code for astrophysical fluid dynamics. We present four test problems that show the method works and correctly tracks the propagation of MHD waves and the structure of two-fluid C-shocks. The accurate propagation of MHD waves in the two-fluid approximation is shown to be a stringent test of the algorithm. We demonstrate that highly accurate methods are required in order to properly capture the MHD wave behaviour in the presence of ion-neutral friction.Comment: 29 pages, 16 figures, accepted to MNRA

Simulating Anisotropic Thermal Conduction in Supernova Remnants, Implications for the Interstellar Medium

We present a large number of two and a half dimensional simulations of supernova remnants expanding into interstellar media having a range of densities, temperatures and magnetic field strengths. The volume of hot gas produced is strongly dependent on the inclusion of thermal conduction and magnetic fields. The four-volumes and three-areas of hot gas have been catalogued and their dependence on interstellar parameters documented. Simulated line widths of radioactive species ejected by supernovae have also been catalogued