Diffusion of a passive scalar in a rotating medium with anisotropic turbulence

We investigate the influence of turbulence anisotropy and rotation on the diffusion of a low-concentration passive scalar in a turbulent medium. Using the renormalization the diffusion tensor over the spectrum of turbulent fluctuations, we show that enhanced horizontal mixing reduces the vertical diffusion transport of a passive scalar. Allowance for rotation results in two effects, which have not been noted previously: (1) under the influence of Coriolis forces, horizontal turbulence also produces a vertical diffusion flux, with the horizontal and vertical diffusions being of the same order of magnitude for rapidly rotating stars and (2) in the case of rapid rotation, all diffusion fluxes of a passive scalar decrease in inverse proportion to the square root of the Coriolis number.     

The helicity constraint in turbulent dynamos with shear

The evolution of magnetic fields is studied using simulations of forced helical turbulence with strong imposed shear. After some initial exponential growth, the magnetic field develops a large-scale travelling wave pattern. The resulting field structure possesses magnetic helicity, which is conserved in a periodic box by the ideal magnetohydrodynamics equations and can hence only change on a resistive time-scale. This strongly constrains the growth time of the large-scale magnetic field, but less strongly constrains the length of the cycle period. Comparing this with the case without shear, the time-scale for large-scale field amplification is shortened by a factor Q , which depends on the relative importance of shear and helical turbulence, and which also controls the ratio of toroidal to poloidal field. The results of the simulations can be reproduced qualitatively and quantitatively with a mean-field α Ω-dynamo model with alpha-effect and turbulent magnetic diffusivity coefficients that are less strongly quenched than in the corresponding α ²-dynamo.     

Tidally distorted accretion discs in binary stars

The non-axisymmetric features observed in the discs of dwarf novae in outburst are usually considered to be spiral shocks, which are the non-linear relatives of tidally excited waves. This interpretation suffers from a number of problems. For example, the natural site of wave excitation lies outside the Roche lobe, the disc must be especially hot, and most treatments of wave propagation do not take into account the vertical structure of the disc.
In this paper I construct a detailed semi-analytical model of the non-linear tidal distortion of a thin, three-dimensional accretion disc by a binary companion on a circular orbit. The analysis presented here allows for vertical motion and radiative energy transport, and introduces a simple model for the turbulent magnetic stress. The   m =2  inner vertical resonance has an important influence on the amplitude and phase of the tidal distortion. I show that the observed patterns find a natural explanation if the emission is associated with the tidally thickened sectors of the outer disc, which may be irradiated from the centre. According to this hypothesis, it may be possible to constrain the physical parameters of the disc through future observations.     

A Large Scale Energy Source For Feeding: ISM Turbulence in Spiral Galaxies

One of the important consequences of a newly discovered secular dynamical evolution process of spiral galaxies (Zhang, 1996, 1998, 1999) is that the orbiting disk matter receives energy injection each time it crosses the spiral density wave crest. This energy injection has been shown to be able to quantitatively explain the observed age-velocity-dispersion relation of the solar neighborhood stars. We demostrate in this paper that similar energy injection into the interstellar medium could serve as the large-scale energy source to continuously power the observed interstellar turbulence and to offset its downward cascade tendency. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Shock surfing acceleration

Analytical and numerical analysis identify shock surfing acceleration as an ideal pre-energization mechanism for the slow pick-up ions at quasiperpendicular shocks. After gaining sufficient energy by shock surfing, pick-up ions undergo diffusive acceleration to reach their observed energies. Energetic ions upstream of the cometary bow shock, acceleration of solar energetic particles by magnetosonic waves in corona, ion enhancement in interplanetary shocks, generation of anomalous cosmic rays from interstellar pick-up ions at the termination shock are some of the cases where shock surfing acceleration apply. Inclusion of the lower-hybrid wave turbulence into the laminar model of shock surfing can explain the preferential acceleration of heavier particles as observed by Voyager at the termination shock. At relativistic energies, unlimited acceleration of ions is theoretically possible; because for sufficiently strong shocks main limitation of the mechanism, caused by the escape of accelerated particles downstream of the shock during acceleration no longer exists.     

21世纪初期气候波动下浑善达克沙地荒漠化动态变化分析

基于EOS-MODIS遥感数据,利用GIS计算出归一化植被指数(NDVI)和植被覆盖指数(PV),计算得到荒漠化指数(DI)对浑善达克沙地荒漠化进行识别,根据像元数统计不同荒漠化类型的面积及其变化数据,再分析荒漠化面积与气象要素的相关性,进而得出近13 a在气候波动下浑善达克沙地荒漠化的动态变化。结果表明:浑善达克沙地年平均气温呈下降趋势,年平均降水量呈增加趋势,且平均降水量对荒漠化动态变化的影响比平均气温对荒漠化动态变化的影响大。在气候波动影响下浑善达克沙地以荒漠化面积缩小为主,中度荒漠化,重度荒漠化和极重度荒漠化对荒漠化的演替贡献较大,表现为高程度荒漠化向低程度荒漠化转换。空间分布上,表现为西部极重度荒漠化面积明显减少,主要转化为重度荒漠化类型,东中部重度荒漠化明显减少,主要转化为未荒漠化和轻度荒漠化类型。     

Dynamo saturation in direct simulations of the multi‐phase turbulent interstellar medium

The ordered magnetic field observed via polarised synchrotron emission in nearby disc galaxies can be explained by a mean‐field dynamo operating in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM). Additionally, vertical‐flux initial conditions are potentially able to influence this dynamo via the occurrence of the magnetorotational instability (MRI). We aim to study the influence of various initial field configurations on the saturated state of the mean‐field dynamo. This is motivated by the observation that different saturation behaviour was previously obtained for different supernova rates. We perform direct numerical simulations (DNS) of three‐dimensional local boxes of the vertically stratified, turbulent interstellar medium, employing shearing‐periodic boundary conditions horizontally. Unlike in our previous work, we also impose a vertical seed magnetic field. We run the simulations until the growth of the magnetic energy becomes negligible. We furthermore perform simulations of equivalent 1D dynamo models, with an algebraic quenching mechanism for the dynamo coefficients. We compare the saturation of the magnetic field in the DNS with the algebraic quenching of a mean‐field dynamo. The final magnetic field strength found in the direct simulation is in excellent agreement with a quenched α) dynamo. For supernova rates representative of the Milky Way, field losses via a Galactic wind are likely responsible for saturation. We conclude that the relative strength of the turbulent and regular magnetic fields in spiral galaxies may depend on the galaxy's star formation rate. We propose that a mean field approach with algebraic quenching may serve as a simple sub‐grid scale model for galaxy evolution simulations including a prescribed feedback from magnetic fields. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)