On the Ambipolar Diffusion Formulation for Ion-neutral drifts in the non-negligible drift velocity limit

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Hillier, Andrew
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Hillier, Andrew
author_facet Hillier, Andrew
contents The ambipolar diffusion approximation is used to model partially ionised plasma dynamics in a single fluid setting. To correctly apply the commonly used version of ambipolar diffusion, a set of criteria should be satisfied including the requirement that the difference in velocity between charges and neutral species (known as drift velocity) is much smaller than the thermal velocity, otherwise the drift velocity will drive a non-negligible level of further collisions between the two species. In this paper we explore the consequence of relaxing this assumption. We show that a new induction equation can be formulated without this assumption. This formulation reduces to the ambipolar induction equation in the case the drift velocity is small. In the large drift velocity limit, the feedback of the drift velocity on the collision frequency results in decreased diffusion of the magnetic field compared with the standard ambipolar diffusion approximation for the same parameters. This has a natural consequence of reducing the frictional heating that can occur. Applying this to results from flux emergence simulations where the expansion of the magnetic field leads to strong adiabatic cooling of the partially ionised chromosphere resulted in a noticeable reduction in the magnitude of the predicted drift velocities.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_16847
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the Ambipolar Diffusion Formulation for Ion-neutral drifts in the non-negligible drift velocity limit
Hillier, Andrew
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Plasma Physics
The ambipolar diffusion approximation is used to model partially ionised plasma dynamics in a single fluid setting. To correctly apply the commonly used version of ambipolar diffusion, a set of criteria should be satisfied including the requirement that the difference in velocity between charges and neutral species (known as drift velocity) is much smaller than the thermal velocity, otherwise the drift velocity will drive a non-negligible level of further collisions between the two species. In this paper we explore the consequence of relaxing this assumption. We show that a new induction equation can be formulated without this assumption. This formulation reduces to the ambipolar induction equation in the case the drift velocity is small. In the large drift velocity limit, the feedback of the drift velocity on the collision frequency results in decreased diffusion of the magnetic field compared with the standard ambipolar diffusion approximation for the same parameters. This has a natural consequence of reducing the frictional heating that can occur. Applying this to results from flux emergence simulations where the expansion of the magnetic field leads to strong adiabatic cooling of the partially ionised chromosphere resulted in a noticeable reduction in the magnitude of the predicted drift velocities.
title On the Ambipolar Diffusion Formulation for Ion-neutral drifts in the non-negligible drift velocity limit
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Plasma Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.16847