Related papers: Radiative and dynamic stability of a dilute plasma
We analyze the stability of a dilute plasma with thermal and composition gradients in the limit where conduction is slow compared to the dynamical timescale. We find necessary and sufficient conditions for stability when the background…
A long-standing question is whether radiative cooling can lead to local condensations of cold gas in the hot atmospheres of galaxies and galaxy clusters. We address this problem by studying the nature of local instabilities in rotating,…
We examine the linear stability analysis of a hot, dilute and differentially rotating plasma by considering anisotropic transport effects. In the dilute plasmas, the ion Larmor radius is small compared with its collisional mean free path.…
I calculate the linear stability of a stratified low collisionality plasma in the presence of a weak magnetic field. Heat is assumed to flow only along magnetic field lines. In the absence of a heat flux in the background plasma, Balbus…
The thermal stability of a weakly magnetized, rotating, stratified, optically thin plasma is studied by means of linear-perturbation analysis. We derive dispersion relations and criteria for stability against axisymmetric perturbations that…
Clusters of galaxies are embedded in halos of optically thin, gravitationally stratified, weakly magnetized plasma at the system's virial temperature. Due to radiative cooling and anisotropic heat conduction, such intracluster medium (ICM)…
The role of thermal conduction in regulating the thermal behavior of cooling flows in galaxy clusters is reexamined. Recent investigations have shown that the anisotropic Coulomb heat flux caused by a magnetic field in a dilute plasma…
We consider the problem of self-regulated heating and cooling in galaxy clusters and the implications for cluster magnetic fields and turbulence. Viscous heating of a weakly collisional magnetised plasma is regulated by the pressure…
We study the interplay among cooling, heating, conduction, and magnetic fields in gravitationally stratified plasmas using simplified, plane-parallel numerical simulations. Since the physical heating mechanism remains uncertain in massive…
We develop a theory of buoyancy instabilities of the electron-ion plasma with the heat flux based on not the MHD equations, but using the multicomponent plasma approach. We investigate a geometry in which the background magnetic field,…
The stability of a dilute plasma to local convective and rotational disturbances is examined. A subthermal magnetic field and finite thermal conductivity along the field lines are included in the analysis. Stability criteria similar in form…
Both global dynamics and turbulence in magnetized weakly collisional cosmic plasmas are described by general magnetofluid equations that contain pressure anisotropies and heat fluxes that must be calculated from microscopic plasma kinetic…
Over the last decade, substantial efforts have been devoted to understanding the stability properties, transport phenomena, and long-term evolution of weakly-collisional, magnetized plasmas which are stratified in temperature. These studies…
The stability of a collisionless, magnetised plasma to local convective disturbances is examined, with a focus on kinetic and finite-Larmor-radius effects. Specific application is made to the outskirts of galaxy clusters, which contain hot…
We investigate the role of thermal instability, arising from radiative cooling of an optically thin, dusty plasma, by linear stability analysis. The corresponding isobaric stability condition for condensation mode is found to be modified…
In dilute astrophysical plasmas, thermal conduction is primarily along magnetic field lines, and therefore highly anisotropic. As a result, the usual convective stability criterion is modified from a condition on entropy to a condition on…
In this work, we present a linear stability analysis of fully-ionized rotating plasma disks with a temperature gradient and a sub-thermal background magnetic field (oriented towards the axial direction). We describe how the plasma reacts…
The intracluster medium of galaxy clusters is a weakly collisional, high-beta plasma in which the transport of heat and momentum occurs primarily along magnetic-field lines. Anisotropic heat conduction allows convective instabilities to be…
Determining the origin of turbulence in galaxy clusters, and quantifying its transport of heat, is an outstanding problem, with implications for our understanding of their thermodynamic history and structure. As the dilute plasma of the…
In low collisionality plasmas heat flows almost exclusively along magnetic field lines, and the condition for stability to convection is modified from the standard Schwarzschild criterion. We present local two and three-dimensional…