A prescription for the turbulent heating of astrophysical plasmas

By Gregory G. Howes. 2010

133 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The ion-to-electron heating ratio due to the dissipation of Alfvenic turbulence in astrophysical plasmas is calculated based on a cascade model for turbulence in weakly collisional plasmas. Conditions for validity of this model are discussed, a prescription for the turbulent heating is presented and it is applied to predict turbulent heating in accretion discs and the interstellar medium.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/06f37d52d11b62e7542e7795b6668bf8dbda6335

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Ramesh Narayan
2. T. Johannsen
3. J. Dexter
4. J. McKinney
5. M. Mościbrodzka
6. A. Tchekhovskoy
7. Dimitrios Psaltis
8. E. Quataert

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. Ramesh Narayan
2. J. Dexter
3. A. Tchekhovskoy
4. Dimitrios Psaltis
5. T. Johannsen
6. J. McKinney
7. A. Broderick
8. A. Marscher

Citations in the corpus

• Electron Thermodynamics in GRMHD Simulations of Low-Luminosity Black Hole Accretion (2015, methodology): “In a turbulent, magnetised plasma, electrons and ions are heated at different rates depending on the local plasma conditions (e.g., Quataert & Gruzinov 1999; Cranmer et al. 2009; Howes 2010; Sironi 2015).”
• First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. V. Testing Astrophysical Models of the Galactic Center Black Hole (2022, background): “Howes (2010) computed the ratio of ion to electron heating due to dissipation of Alfvénic turbulent cascade, while Werner et al. (2017) and Rowan et al. (2017) considered magnetic reconnection as the source of energy dissipation at subgrid scales.”
• First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. VIII. Magnetic Field Structure near The Event Horizon (2021, unknown): “The cooler electrons in the funnel regions of R17 reflect the decreased efficiency of low-β electron heating in the Rowan et al. (2019) model than in Howes (2010).”
• First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. V. Physical Origin of the Asymmetric Ring (2019, unknown): “Evidently the mass accretion rates and jet powers in the GRMHD models span a wide range that depends on Rhigh, but when we choose Rhigh=10−20 they are similar to what is found in the radiative GRMHD model when using the turbulent electron heating model (Howes 2010).”