24 research outputs found
Numerical study of homogeneous dynamo based on experimental von Karman type flows
A numerical study of the magnetic induction equation has been performed on
von Karman type flows. These flows are generated by two co-axial
counter-rotating propellers in cylindrical containers. Such devices are
currently used in the von Karman sodium (VKS) experiment designed to study
dynamo action in an unconstrained flow. The mean velocity fields have been
measured for different configurations and are introduced in a periodic
cylindrical kinematic dynamo code. Depending on the driving configuration, on
the poloidal to toroidal flow ratio and on the conductivity of boundaries, some
flows are observed to sustain growing magnetic fields for magnetic Reynolds
numbers accessible to a sodium experiment. The response of the flow to an
external magnetic field has also been studied: The results are in excellent
agreement with experimental results in the single propeller case but can differ
in the two propellers case.Comment: 20 pages, 32 figure
Nonlinear dynamo in a short Taylor-Couette setup
It is numerically demonstrated by means of a magnetohydrodynamics code that a
short Taylor-Couette setup with a body force can sustain dynamo action. The
magnetic threshold is comparable to what is usually obtained in spherical
geometries. The linear dynamo is characterized by a rotating equatorial dipole.
The nonlinear regime is characterized by fluctuating kinetic and magnetic
energies and a tilted dipole whose axial component exhibits aperiodic reversals
during the time evolution. These numerical evidences of dynamo action in a
short Taylor-Couette setup may be useful for developing an experimental device
A Holistic Scenario of Turbulent Molecular Cloud Evolution and Control of the Star Formation Efficiency. First Tests
We compile a holistic scenario for molecular cloud (MC) evolution and control
of the star formation efficiency (SFE), and present a first set of numerical
tests of it. A {\it lossy} compressible cascade can generate density
fluctuations and further turbulence at small scales from large-scale motions,
implying that the turbulence in MCs may originate from the compressions that
form them. Below a {\it sonic} scale \ls, turbulence cannot induce any
further subfragmentation, nor be a dominant support agent against gravity.
Since progressively smaller density peaks contain progressively smaller
fractions of the mass, we expect the SFE to decrease with decreasing \ls, at
least when the cloud is globally supported by turbulence. Our numerical
experiments confirm this prediction. We also find that the collapsed mass
fraction in the simulations always saturates below 100% efficiency. This may be
due to the decreased mean density of the leftover interclump medium, which in
real clouds (not confined to a box) should then be more easily dispersed,
marking the ``death'' of the cloud. We identify two different functional
dependences (``modes'') of the SFE on \ls, which roughly correspond to
globally supported and unsupported cases. Globally supported runs with most of
the turbulent energy at the largest scales have similar SFEs to those of
unsupported runs, providing numerical evidence of the dual role of turbulence,
whereby large-scale turbulent modes induce collapse at smaller scales. We
tentatively suggest that these modes may correspond to the clustered and
isolated modes of star formation, although here they are seen to form part of a
continuum rather than being separate modes. Finally, we compare with previous
proposals that the relevant parameter is the energy injection scale.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Uses emulateapj. Accepted in ApJ Letter
Gravitational Collapse in Turbulent Molecular Clouds. I. Gasdynamical Turbulence
Observed molecular clouds often appear to have very low star formation
efficiencies and lifetimes an order of magnitude longer than their free-fall
times. Their support is attributed to the random supersonic motions observed in
them. We study the support of molecular clouds against gravitational collapse
by supersonic, gas dynamical turbulence using direct numerical simulation.
Computations with two different algorithms are compared: a particle-based,
Lagrangian method (SPH), and a grid-based, Eulerian, second-order method
(ZEUS). The effects of both algorithm and resolution can be studied with this
method. We find that, under typical molecular cloud conditions, global collapse
can indeed be prevented, but density enhancements caused by strong shocks
nevertheless become gravitationally unstable and collapse into dense cores and,
presumably, stars. The occurance and efficiency of local collapse decreases as
the driving wave length decreases and the driving strength increases. It
appears that local collapse can only be prevented entirely with unrealistically
short wave length driving, but observed core formation rates can be reproduced
with more realistic driving. At high collapse rates, cores are formed on short
time scales in coherent structures with high efficiency, while at low collapse
rates they are scattered randomly throughout the region and exhibit
considerable age spread. We suggest that this naturally explains the observed
distinction between isolated and clustered star formation.Comment: Minor revisions in response to referee, thirteen figures, accepted to
Astrophys.
Equations de la MHD en milieu hétérogène
Dynamo effect is one of the most commonly accepted explanation for the existence of a magnetic field on Earth. Aiming to the numerical simulation of the VKS2 experiment (one of the successful experiments highlighting dynamo effect), a numerical code (SFEMaNS) has been developed. It combines the use of Fourier decomposition in an azimuthal direction, and a Lagrange Finite Element Solver in meridian planes. This choice of FE is a challenging task and requires a non-standard approach. Results have been successfully confronted to experimental results and to other numerical simulations
Flows, Fragmentation, and Star Formation. I. Low-mass Stars in Taurus
The remarkably filamentary spatial distribution of young stars in the Taurus
molecular cloud has significant implications for understanding low-mass star
formation in relatively quiescent conditions. The large scale and regular
spacing of the filaments suggests that small-scale turbulence is of limited
importance, which could be consistent with driving on large scales by flows
which produced the cloud. The small spatial dispersion of stars from gaseous
filaments indicates that the low-mass stars are generally born with small
velocity dispersions relative to their natal gas, of order the sound speed or
less. The spatial distribution of the stars exhibits a mean separation of about
0.25 pc, comparable to the estimated Jeans length in the densest gaseous
filaments, and is consistent with roughly uniform density along the filaments.
The efficiency of star formation in filaments is much higher than elsewhere,
with an associated higher frequency of protostars and accreting T Tauri stars.
The protostellar cores generally are aligned with the filaments, suggesting
that they are produced by gravitational fragmentation, resulting in initially
quasi-prolate cores. Given the absence of massive stars which could strongly
dominate cloud dynamics, Taurus provides important tests of theories of
dispersed low-mass star formation and numerical simulations of molecular cloud
structure and evolution.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures: to appear in Ap
Turbulent dissipation in the ISM: the coexistence of forced and decaying regimes and implications for galaxy formation and evolution
We discuss the dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy Ek in the global ISM
by means of 2-D, MHD, non-isothermal simulations in the presence of model
radiative heating and cooling. We argue that dissipation in 2D is
representative of that in three dimensions as long as it is dominated by shocks
rather than by a turbulent cascade. Energy is injected at a few isolated sites
in space, over relatively small scales, and over short time periods. This leads
to the coexistence of forced and decaying regimes in the same flow. We find
that the ISM-like flow dissipates its turbulent energy rapidly. In simulations
with forcing, the input parameters are the radius l_f of the forcing region,
the total kinetic energy e_k each source deposits into the flow, and the rate
of formation of those regions, sfr_OB. The global dissipation time t_d depends
mainly on l_f. In terms of measurable properties of the ISM, t_d >= Sigma_g
u_rms^2/(e_k sfr_OB), where Sigma_g is the average gas surface density and
u_rms is the rms velocity dispersion. For the solar neighborhood, t_d >=
1.5x10^7 yr. The global dissipation time is consistently smaller than the
crossing time of the largest energy-containing scales. In decaying simulations,
Ek decreases with time as t^-n, where n~0.8-0.9. This suggests a decay with
distance d as Ek\propto d^{-2n/(2-n)} in the mixed forced+decaying case. If
applicable to the vertical direction, our results support models of galaxy
evolution in which stellar energy injection provides significant support for
the gas disk thickness, but not models of galaxy formation in which this energy
injection is supposed to reheat an intra-halo medium at distances of up to
10-20 times the optical galaxy size, as the dissipation occurs on distances
comparable to the disk height.Comment: 23 pages, including figures. To appear in ApJ. Abstract abridge
Is Thermal Instability Significant in Turbulent Galactic Gas?
We investigate numerically the role of thermal instability (TI) as a
generator of density structures in the interstellar medium (ISM), both by
itself and in the context of a globally turbulent medium. Simulations of the
instability alone show that the condenstion process which forms a dense phase
(``clouds'') is highly dynamical, and that the boundaries of the clouds are
accretion shocks, rather than static density discontinuities. The density
histograms (PDFs) of these runs exhibit either bimodal shapes or a single peak
at low densities plus a slope change at high densities. Final static situations
may be established, but the equilibrium is very fragile: small density
fluctuations in the warm phase require large variations in the density of the
cold phase, probably inducing shocks into the clouds. This result suggests that
such configurations are highly unlikely. Simulations including turbulent
forcing show that large- scale forcing is incapable of erasing the signature of
the TI in the density PDFs, but small-scale, stellar-like forcing causes
erasure of the signature of the instability. However, these simulations do not
reach stationary regimes, TI driving an ever-increasing star formation rate.
Simulations including magnetic fields, self-gravity and the Coriolis force show
no significant difference between the PDFs of stable and unstable cases, and
reach stationary regimes, suggesting that the combination of the stellar
forcing and the extra effective pressure provided by the magnetic field and the
Coriolis force overwhelm TI as a density-structure generator in the ISM. We
emphasize that a multi-modal temperature PDF is not necessarily an indication
of a multi-phase medium, which must contain clearly distinct thermal
equilibrium phases.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures. Submitted to Ap
Numerical study of homogeneous dynamo based on experimental von Kármán type flows
Abstract. A numerical study of the magnetic induction equation has been performed on von Kármán typeflows. These flows are generated by two co-axial counter-rotating propellers in cylindrical containers. Such devices are currently used in the von Kármán sodium (VKS) experiment designed to study dynamo action in an unconstrained flow. The mean velocity fields have been measured for different configurations and are introduced in a periodic cylindrical kinematic dynamo code. Depending on the driving configuration, on the poloidal to toroidal flow ratio and on the conductivity of boundaries, some flows are observed to sustain growing magnetic fields for magnetic Reynolds numbers accessible to a sodium experiment. The response of the flow to an external magnetic field has also been studied: The results are in excellent agreement with experimental results in the single propeller case but can differ in the two propellers case