Driven waves in a two-fluid plasma

We study the physics of wave propagation in a weakly ionized plasma, as it applies to the formation of multifluid, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) shock waves. We model the plasma as separate charged and neutral fluids which are coupled by ion–neutral friction. At times much less than the ion–neutral drag time, the fluids are decoupled and so evolve independently. At later times, the evolution is determined by the large inertial mismatch between the charged and neutral particles. The neutral flow continues to evolve independently; the charged flow is driven by and slaved to the neutral flow by friction. We calculate this driven flow analytically by considering the special but realistic case where the charged fluid obeys linearized equations of motion. We carry out an extensive analysis of linear, driven, MHD waves. The physics of driven MHD waves is embodied in certain Green functions which describe wave propagation on short time-scales, ambipolar diffusion on long time-scales and transitional behaviour at intermediate times. By way of illustration, we give an approximate solution for the formation of a multifluid shock during the collision of two identical interstellar clouds. The collision produces forward and reverse J shocks in the neutral fluid and a transient in the charged fluid. The latter rapidly evolves into a pair of magnetic precursors on the J shocks, wherein the ions undergo force-free motion and the magnetic field grows monotonically with time. The flow appears to be self-similar at the time when linear analysis ceases to be valid.     

Did tidal deformation power the core dynamo of Mars?

We first show that 7 out of the 20 giant impact basins of Mars recently reported by Frey [Frey, H., 2008. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35. L13203] trace a great circle on Mars. The other five basins trace another great circle and still the other three basins trace yet another great circle. The latter great circle is in good agreement with the pre-Tharsis equator of Mars that is estimated from modeling crustal magnetic anomalies [Arkani-Hamed, J., 2001. Geophys. Res. Lett. 28, 3409-3412] and diagonalizing the moment of inertia of Mars after removing the loading effects of Tharsis bulge [Sprenke, K.F., Baker, L.L., Williams, A.F., 2005. Icarus 174, 486-489]. It is shown in this paper that the three great circles were likely the equatorial plane of Mars at certain times and Mars experienced appreciable polar wander. The great circles also indicate that the asteroids that created the basins were satellites of Mars whose orbits decayed in time through spin-orbit coupling with tidally deforming Mars, and eventually impacted on the planet creating the giant basins at around 4 Ga. The orbital dynamics of four largest asteroids show that they could have orbited Mars for several hundred million years if they were retrograde satellites. Continual elliptical straining of otherwise circular fluid streamlines of the liquid core of Mars by tidal deformation could have exerted a strong strain that was large enough to overcome dissipation and excite the elliptical instability inside the core. We investigate the physical properties of the martian core that are required to allow the tidal deformation to power the core dynamo, i.e., the growth time of the elliptical instability to become shorter than the dissipation time. The tidal energy dissipation rate inside Mars caused by even only one of the 4 largest asteroids is found to be over two orders of magnitude greater than the magnetic energy dissipation rate in the core, indicating that if only one of the 4 largest asteroids were orbiting in retrograde sense, it would have likely powered the core dynamo of Mars for several hundred million years.     

Contribution of tidal dissipation to lunar thermal history

The possible contributions of tidal heating to lunar thermal history are investigated. Analytic determinations of tidal dissipation in a homogeneous, incompressible Moon and in a two-layer Moon with a soft core and rigid mantle are given as a function of position in the Moon and as a function of Earth-Moon separation. The most recent information on the historical values of the lunar obliquity is employed, and we present results for the constant values of orbital eccentricity of e = 0.0 and e = 0.055. For a simplified orbital evolution and a dissipation factor Q = 100, the total increase in the mean lunar temperature for the homogeneous case does not exceed several tens of degrees. For the two-layer models the local dissipation may be enhanced over that of the homogeneous Moon by a factor of 5 for a core radius of 0.5 lunar radii and by a factor of 100 for a core radius of 0.95 lunar radii. The corresponding factors for the total dissipation are 3 and 15 for the two values of core radii, respectively. We conclude that tidal contributions to lunar thermal history are probably not important. But under special circumstances the enhanced dissipation in a two-layer Moon could have led to a spectacular thermal event.     

Formation of obliquely propagating dust-ion-acoustic shock waves due to dust charge fluctuation in magnetized nonthermal dusty plasma

A theoretical investigation is made on the formation as well as basic properties of dust-ion-acoustic (DIA) shock waves in a magnetized nonthermal dusty plasma consisting of immobile charge fluctuating dust, inertial ion fluid and nonthermal electrons. The reductive perturbation method is employed to derive the Korteweg-de Vries-Burgers equation governing the DIA shock waves. The combined effects of external static magnetic field, obliqueness, nonthermal electron distribution and dust charge fluctuation on the DIA shock waves are also investigated. It is shown that the dust charge fluctuation is a source of dissipation, and is responsible for the formation of the DIA shock waves. It is also observed that the combined effects of obliqueness, nonthermal electron distribution and dust charge fluctuation significantly modify the basic properties of the DIA shock waves. The implications of our results in space and laboratory dusty plasma situations are briefly discussed.     

Roles of positively charged heavy ions and degenerate plasma pressure on cylindrical and spherical ion acoustic solitary waves

The properties of heavy-ion-acoustic (HIA) solitary structures associated with the nonlinear propagation of cylindrical and spherical electrostatic perturbations in an unmagnetized, collisionless dense plasma system has been investigated theoretically. Our considered model contains degenerate electron and inertial light ion fluids, and positively charged static heavy ions, which is valid for both of the non-relativistic and ultra-relativistic limits. The Korteweg-de Vries (K-dV) and modified K-dV (mK-dV) equations have been derived by employing the reductive perturbation method, and numerically examined in order. It has been found that the effect of degenerate pressure and number density of electron and inertial light ion fluids, and positively charged static heavy ions significantly modify the basic features of HIA solitary waves. It is also noted that the inertial light ion fluid is the source of dispersion for HIA waves and is responsible for the formation of solitary waves. The basic features and the underlying physics of HIA solitary waves, which are relevant to some astrophysical compact objects, are briefly discussed.     

Tidal friction in close-in satellites and exoplanets: The Darwin theory re-visited

This report is a review of Darwin’s classical theory of bodily tides in which we present the analytical expressions for the orbital and rotational evolution of the bodies and for the energy dissipation rates due to their tidal interaction. General formulas are given which do not depend on any assumption linking the tidal lags to the frequencies of the corresponding tidal waves (except that equal frequency harmonics are assumed to span equal lags). Emphasis is given to the cases of companions having reached one of the two possible final states: (1) the super-synchronous stationary rotation resulting from the vanishing of the average tidal torque; (2) capture into the 1:1 spin-orbit resonance (true synchronization). In these cases, the energy dissipation is controlled by the tidal harmonic with period equal to the orbital period (instead of the semi-diurnal tide) and the singularity due to the vanishing of the geometric phase lag does not exist. It is also shown that the true synchronization with non-zero eccentricity is only possible if an extra torque exists opposite to the tidal torque. The theory is developed assuming that this additional torque is produced by an equatorial permanent asymmetry in the companion. The results are model-dependent and the theory is developed only to the second degree in eccentricity and inclination (obliquity). It can easily be extended to higher orders, but formal accuracy will not be a real improvement as long as the physics of the processes leading to tidal lags is not better known.     

Effect of the rotation and tidal dissipation history of stars on the evolution of close-in planets

Since 20 years, a large population of close-in planets orbiting various classes of low-mass stars (from M-type to A-type stars) has been discovered. In such systems, the dissipation of the kinetic energy of tidal flows in the host star may modify its rotational evolution and shape the orbital architecture of the surrounding planetary system. In this context, recent observational and theoretical works demonstrated that the amplitude of this dissipation can vary over several orders of magnitude as a function of stellar mass, age and rotation. In addition, stellar spin-up occurring during the Pre-Main-Sequence (PMS) phase because of the contraction of stars and their spin-down because of the torque applied by magnetized stellar winds strongly impact angular momentum exchanges within star–planet systems. Therefore, it is now necessary to take into account the structural and rotational evolution of stars when studying the orbital evolution of close-in planets. At the same time, the presence of planets may modify the rotational dynamics of the host stars and as a consequence their evolution, magnetic activity and mixing. In this work, we present the first study of the dynamics of close-in planets of various masses orbiting low-mass stars (from \(0.6~M_\odot \) to \(1.2~M_\odot \)) where we compute the simultaneous evolution of the star’s structure, rotation and tidal dissipation in its external convective envelope. We demonstrate that tidal friction due to the stellar dynamical tide, i.e. tidal inertial waves excited in the convection zone, can be larger by several orders of magnitude than the one of the equilibrium tide currently used in Celestial Mechanics, especially during the PMS phase. Moreover, because of this stronger tidal friction in the star, the orbital migration of the planet is now more pronounced and depends more on the stellar mass, rotation and age. This would very weakly affect the planets in the habitable zone because they are located at orbital distances such that stellar tide-induced migration happens on very long timescales. We also demonstrate that the rotational evolution of host stars is only weakly affected by the presence of planets except for massive companions.     

Tidally forced viscous heating in a partially molten Io

We investigate tidal dissipative heating in two different models of Io. The partially molten asthenosphere model consists of a rigid inner core and a thin (less than 40 km thick) partially molten “decoupling” layer (asthenosphere) surrounded by an elastic lithosphere. In the partially molten interior model the interior beneath the lithosphere is partially molten throughout. The partially molten region in each model assumed to possess negligible shear strength and to be characterized by a Newtonian viscosity. Tidal deformation and dissipation in the core of the thin asthenosphere model are assumed negligible. Fluid in the viscous layers is forced to circulate by the tidal distortion of the outer shell, modeled here as a sinusoidal variation with time of the distortion amplitude. As a result, heat is generated in the fluid by viscous dissipation. There are two heating mechanisms in our models: “elastic” dissipation in the lithosphere ∞ 1/Q and viscous dissipation in the partially molten region. Numerical calculatons are carried out for a 90-km-thick lithosphere with Q = 100. This thickness maximizes dissipation in a decoupled lithosphere; other reasonable values of lithosphere thickness do not alter our conclusions. Under the constraint that total dissipation equals the observed radiated heat loss we derived the iscosity of the partially molten region in each model. We a posteriori evaluate the assumption that the lithosphere is decoupled from the interior by calculating the distortion of an elastic shell due to the viscous stresses on the lower surface of the outr shell. If the interior viscosity is such that the total dissipation is equal to the observed heat flux from Io, viscous stresses produce negligible distortion of a 90-km-thick shell. This validates the assumption of a decoupled shell. The derived viscosity for both models is characteristic of a partially molten rock. In the thin asthenosphere model the derived viscosity is so low that a very high degree of partial melt is necessary, about 40% crystal fraction in a 400-km-thick asthenosphere and about 0% in a 1-km-thick asthenosphere. In the partially molten interior model the derived viscosity corresponds to a magma with about 60% crystals. Consideration of convective efficiencies demonstrates the plausibility of a stable thermal steady state for both models. A significant portion (75% for Q = 100) of Io's tidal heating can be the result of viscous dissipation in a partially molten region that decouples the outer shell from the interior. The partially molten layer can be considered a “global magma ocean”.     

Dissipation mechanism of interplanetary alfvenic fluctuation

Observations on board Helios 1 and 2 have shown that, in 0.3–0.9 AU, the decay of the Alfvenic fluctuations is greater than is calculated by the WBK solution of the propagation of Alfven waves. The additional decay can be expressed by an exponential factor with a “dissipation length” λ, which varies with the frequency but is approximately constant for frequencies higher than 0.01 Hz. In this paper, we deduce the analytical expression for the dissipation length in both the wave energy cascade model, given in a previous work [7] and the viscous decay model [8]. After inserting the observed values of the solar wind parameters, we find the dissipation length given by the cascade model agrees with the observed length both in size and in its variation with frequency, while the one given by the viscous decay model differs greatly from the observations.     

A numerical scheme and benchmark tests for non-isothermal two-fluid ambipolar diffusion

Stars form in magnetized molecular clouds composed primarily of neutral gas with a trace amount of ions. We present a semi-implicit strategy for incorporating the equations that describe the coupled ion and neutral two-fluid equations, with a full energy equation, into the RIEMANN code that uses a TR-BDF2 algorithm to stably handle the stiffness of the source terms. We demonstrate that the numerical implementation works through the use of a suite of test problems that we catalog here. We show that reproducing the analytic dispersion analysis for the propagation of waves in a two-fluid plasma is an especially strong code test. We also present a two-fluid analogue of the Noh wall-shock problem and demonstrate the performance of the code on the Wardle instability. We also present a novel blast wave test, showing that the results reduce to the single fluid results under strong coupling, yet differing considerably when the coupling is weak. These test problems demonstrate that the numerical implementation can accurately capture the dissipation rate of waves and reproduce the structure of a C-shock.     

Tidal heating and the long-term stability of a subsurface ocean on Enceladus

Tidal dissipation has been suggested as the heat source for the south polar thermal anomaly on Enceladus. We find that under present-day conditions and assuming Maxwellian behavior, tidal dissipation is negligible in the silicate core. Dissipation may be significant in the ice shell if the shell is decoupled from the silicate core by a subsurface ocean. We have run a series of self-consistent convection and conduction models in 2D axisymmetric and 3D spherical geometry in which we include the spatially-variable tidal heat production. We find that in all cases, the shell removes more heat from the interior than can be produced in the core by radioactive decay, resulting in cooling of the interior and the freezing of any ocean. Under likely conditions, a 40-km thick ocean made of pure water would freeze solid on a ∼30 Ma timescale. An ocean containing other chemical components will have a lower freezing point, but even a water-ammonia eutectic composition will only prolong the freezing, not prevent it. If the eccentricity of Enceladus were higher (e?0.015) in the past, the increased dissipation in the ice shell may have been sufficient to maintain a liquid layer. We cannot therefore rule out the presence of a transient ocean, as a relic of an earlier era of greater heating. If the eccentricity is periodically pumped up, the ocean may have thickened and thinned on a similar timescale as the orbital evolution, provided the ocean never froze completely. We conclude that the current heat flux of Enceladus and any possible subsurface ocean is not in steady-state, and is the remnant of an epoch of higher eccentricity and tidal dissipation.     

Tides in a body librating about a spin–orbit resonance: generalisation of the Darwin–Kaula theory

The Darwin-Kaula theory of bodily tides is intended for celestial bodies rotating without libration. We demonstrate that this theory, in its customary form, is inapplicable to a librating body. Specifically, in the presence of libration in longitude, the actual spectrum of Fourier tidal modes differs from the conventional spectrum rendered by the Darwin–Kaula theory for a nonlibrating celestial object. This necessitates derivation of formulae for the tidal torque and the tidal heating rate, that are applicable under libration. We derive the tidal spectrum for longitudinal forced libration with one and two main frequencies, generalisation to more main frequencies being straightforward. (By main frequencies we understand those emerging due to the triaxiality of the librating body.) Separately, we consider a case of free libration at one frequency (once again, generalisation to more frequencies being straightforward). We also calculate the tidal torque. This torque provides correction to the triaxiality-caused physical libration. Our theory is not self-consistent: we assume that the tidal torque is much smaller than the permanent-triaxiality-caused torque, so the additional libration due to tides is much weaker than the main libration due to the permanent triaxiality. Finally, we calculate the tidal dissipation rate in a body experiencing forced libration at the main mode, or free libration at one frequency, or superimposed forced and free librations.     

Effects of nonthermal ions of distinct temperatures on dust acoustic shock waves in a dusty plasma

The nonlinear propagation of dust acoustic (DA) waves in an unmagnetized dusty plasma system consisting of negatively charged mobile dust fluid, Boltzmann distributed electrons, and two-temperature nonthermally distributed ions, is rigorously investigated. The reductive perturbation method has been employed to derive the Burgers equation. The hydrodynamic equation for inertial dust grains has been used to derive the Burgers equation. The effects of two temperature nonthermally distributed ions and dust kinematic viscosity, which are found to significantly modify the basic features of DA shock waves, are briefly discussed. Our present investigation can be effectively utilized in many astrophysical situations (e.g. satellite or spacecraft observations, Saturn’s E ring, etc.), which are discussed briefly in this analysis.     

The production of Ganymede's magnetic field

One of the great discoveries of NASA's Galileo mission was the presence of an intrinsically produced magnetic field at Ganymede. Generation of the relatively strong (750 nT) field likely requires dynamo action in Ganymede's metallic core, but how such a dynamo has been maintained into the present epoch remains uncertain. Using a one-dimensional, three layer thermal model of Ganymede, we find that magnetic field generation can only occur if the sulfur mass fraction in Ganymede's core is very low (?3%) or very high (?21%), and the silicate mantle can cool rapidly (i.e. it has a viscosity like wet olivine). However, these requirements are not necessarily compatible with cosmochemical and physical models of the satellite. We therefore investigate an alternative scenario for producing Ganymede's magnetic field in which passage through an eccentricity pumping Laplace-like resonance in Ganymede's past enables present day dynamo action in the metallic core. If sufficient tidal dissipation occurs in Ganymede's silicate mantle during resonance passage, silicate temperatures can undergo a runaway which prevents the core from cooling until the resonance passage ends. The rapid silicate and core cooling that follows resonance escape triggers dynamo action via thermal and/or compositional convection. To test the feasibility of this mechanism we couple our thermal model with an orbital evolution model to examine the effects of resonance passage on Ganymede's silicate mantle and metallic core. We find that, contrary to expectations, there are no physically plausible scenarios in which tidal heating in the silicates is sufficient to cause the thermal runaway necessary to prevent core cooling. These findings are robust to variations in the silicate rheology, tidal dissipation factor of Jupiter (QJ), structure of the ice shell, and the inclusion of partial melting in the silicate mantle. Resonance passage therefore appears unlikely to explain Ganymede's magnetic field and we must appeal to the special conditions described above to explain the presence of the field.     

A solution of linearized Einstein field equations in vacuum used for the detection of the stochastic background of gravitational waves

A solution of linearized Einstein field equations in vacuum is given and discussed. First it is shown that, computing from our particular metric the linearized connections, the linearized Riemann tensor and the linearized Ricci tensor, the linearized Ricci tensor results equal to zero. Then the effect on test masses of our solution, which is a gravitational wave, is discussed. In our solution test masses have an apparent motion in the direction of propagation of the wave, while in the transverse direction they appear at rest. In this way it is possible to think that gravitational waves would be longitudinal waves, but, from careful investigation of this solution, it is shown that the tidal forces associated with gravitational waves act along the directions orthogonal to the direction of propagation of waves. The computation is first made in the long wavelengths approximation (wavelength much larger than the linear distances between test masses), then the analysis is generalized to all gravitational waves.

In the last sections of this paper it is shown that the frequency dependent angular pattern of interferometers can be obtained from our solution and the total signal seen from an interferometer for the stochastic background of gravitational waves is computed.     

Bulk Energization of Electrons in Solar Flares by Alfvén Waves

Bulk energization of electrons to 10?–?20 keV in solar flares is attributed to dissipation of Alfvén waves that transport energy and potential downward to an acceleration region near the chromosphere. The acceleration involves the parallel electric field that develops in the limit of inertial Alfvén waves (IAWs). A two-potential model for IAWs is used to relate the parallel potential to the cross-field potential transported by the waves. We identify a maximum parallel potential in terms of a maximum current density that corresponds to the threshold for the onset of anomalous resistivity. This maximum is of order 10 kV when the threshold is that for the Buneman instability. We argue that this restricts the cross-field potential in an Alfvén wave to about 10 kV. Effective dissipation requires a large number of up- and down-current paths associated with multiple Alfvén waves. The electron acceleration occurs in localized, transient, anomalously conducting regions (LTACRs) and is associated with the parallel electric field determined by Ohm’s law with an anomalous resistivity. We introduce an idealized model in which the LTACRs are (upward-)current sheets, a few skin depths in thickness, separated by much larger regions of weaker return current. We show that this model can account semi-quantitatively for bulk energization.     

Tidal dissipation within large icy satellites: Applications to Europa and Titan

This paper describes a new approach based on variational principles to calculate the radial distribution of tidal energy dissipation in any satellite. The advantage of the model with respect to classical solutions, is that it relates in a straightforward way the radial distribution of the time-averaged dissipation rate to its sensitivity to the corresponding distribution of viscoelastic parameters. This method is applied to Io-, Europa-, and Titan-like interiors, and it is tested against the results obtained by two classical methods by determining global dissipation as well as radial and lateral distributions within satellite interiors. By exploring systematically the different parameters defining the interior models, we demonstrate that the presence of a deep ocean below an outer ice layer strongly influences the tidal dissipation distribution in both the outer ice layer and in the innermost part of the satellite. On the one hand, the ocean by imposing a large radial displacement at the base of the outer ice I layer, controls the distribution of tidal strain rate within the outer layer, making the tidal strain rate field very weakly sensitive to the viscosity variations. Conversely, in the high-pressure ice layer below the ocean, both tidal strain rate and dissipation are very sensitive to any variation of the ice viscosity. On the other hand, for identical structures of the mantle and of the core, the presence of a subsurface ocean reduces the strength of dissipation in the silicate mantle. The existence of a liquid layer within Europa makes models of the silicate mantle less dissipative than the predictions for Io.     

Oblique propagation and dissipation of Alfvén waves in coronal holes

We investigate the effect of viscosity and magnetic diffusivity on the oblique propagation and dissipation of Alfvén waves with respect to the normal outward direction, making use of MHD equations, density, temperature and magnetic field structure in coronal holes and underlying magnetic funnels. We find reduction in the damping length scale, group velocity and energy flux density as the propagation angle of Alfvén waves increases inside the coronal holes. For any propagation angle, the energy flux density and damping length scale also show a decrement in the source region of the solar wind (< 1.05 R_⊙) where these may be one of the primary energy sources, which can convert the inflow of the solar wind into the outflow. In the outer region (> 1.21 R_⊙), for any propagation angle, the energy flux density peaks match with the peaks of MgX 609.78 Å and 624.78 Å linewidths observed from the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS) on SOHO and the non-thermal velocity derived from these observations, justify the observed spectroscopic signature of the Alfvén wave dissipation.     

Coupled convection and tidal dissipation in Europa’s ice shell

We performed 2D numerical simulations of oscillatory tidal flexing to study the interrelationship between tidal dissipation (calculated using the Maxwell model) and a heterogeneous temperature structure in Europa’s ice shell. Our 2D simulations show that, if the temperature is spatially uniform, the tidal dissipation rate peaks when the Maxwell time is close to the tidal period, consistent with previous studies. The tidal dissipation rate in a convective plume encased in a different background temperature depends on both the plume and background temperature. At a fixed background temperature, the dissipation increases strongly with plume temperature at low temperatures, peaks, and then decreases with temperature near the melting point when a melting-temperature viscosity of 10¹³ Pa s is used; however, the peak occurs at significantly higher temperature in this heterogeneous case than in a homogeneous medium for equivalent rheology. For constant plume temperature, the dissipation rate in a plume decreases as the surrounding temperature increases; plumes that are warmer than their surroundings can exhibit enhanced heating not only relative to their surroundings but relative to the Maxwell-model prediction for a homogeneous medium at the plume temperature. These results have important implications for thermal feedbacks in Europa’s ice shell.To self-consistently determine how convection interacts with tidal heating that is correctly calculated from the time-evolving heterogeneous temperature field, we coupled viscoelastic simulations of oscillatory tidal flexing (using Tekton) to long-term simulations of the convective evolution (using ConMan). Our simulations show that the tidal dissipation rate resulting from heterogeneous temperature can have a strong impact on thermal convection in Europa’s ice shell. Temperatures within upwelling plumes are greatly enhanced and can reach the melting temperature under plausible tidal-flexing amplitude for Europa. A pre-existing fracture zone (at least 6 km deep) promotes the concentration of tidal dissipation (up to ∼20 times more than that in the surroundings), leading to lithospheric thinning. This supports the idea that spatially variable tidal dissipation could lead locally to high temperatures, partial melting, and play an important role in the formation of ridges, chaos, or other features.