Related papers: Double-Diffusive Convection
We have identified an important source of mixing in stellar radiation zones, that would arise whenever two conditions are satisfied: (1) the presence of an inverse vertical compositional gradient, and (2) the presence of…
Double-diffusive instabilities are often invoked to explain enhanced transport in stably-stratified fluids. The most-studied natural manifestation of this process, fingering convection, commonly occurs in the ocean's thermocline and…
Double-diffusive convection refers to mixing where the effects of thermal and composition gradients compete to determine the stability of a fluid. In addition to the familiar fast convective instability, such fluids exhibit the slow, direct…
Double-diffusive convection has been well studied in geophysical contexts, but detailed investigations of the regimes characteristic of stellar or planetary interiors have only recently become feasible. Since most astrophysical fluids are…
Fingering convection (also known as thermohaline convection) is a process that drives the vertical transport of chemical elements in regions of stellar radiative zones where the mean molecular weight increases with radius. Recently,…
Double-diffusive convection, often referred to as semi-convection in astrophysics, occurs in thermally and compositionally stratified systems which are stable according to the Ledoux-criterion but unstable according to the Schwarzchild…
Fingering convection (or thermohaline convection) is a weak yet important kind of mixing that occurs in stably-stratified stellar radiation zones in the presence of an inverse mean-molecular-weight gradient. Brown et al. (2013) recently…
Thermohaline convection is a standard chemical mixing process in stellar interiors, yet its mixing efficiency is not fully settled. Competing theories predict turbulent diffusion coefficients, $D_\mu$, that can differ by orders of…
We report here some intriguing properties of fingering double diffusive convection turbulence, i.e. convection flow driven simultaneously by an unstable salinity gradient and a stable temperature gradient. Multiple equilibria can be…
Regions of the ocean's thermocline unstable to salt fingering are often observed to host thermohaline staircases, stacks of deep well-mixed convective layers separated by thin stably-stratified interfaces. Decades after their discovery,…
Fingering convection (otherwise known as thermohaline convection) is an instability that occurs in stellar radiative interiors in the presence of unstable compositional gradients. Numerical simulations have been used in order to estimate…
A region of a star that is stable to convection according to the Ledoux criterion may nevertheless undergo additional mixing if the mean molecular weight increases with radius. This process is called fingering (thermohaline) convection and…
Fingering convection is a turbulent mixing process that can occur in stellar radiative regions whenever the mean molecular weight increases with radius. In some cases, it can have a significant observable impact on stellar structure and…
When particles settle through a stable temperature or salinity gradient they can drive an instability known as sedimentary fingering convection. This phenomenon is thought to occur beneath sediment-rich river plumes in lakes and oceans, in…
The process referred to as "semi-convection" in astrophysics and "double-diffusive convection in the diffusive regime" in Earth and planetary sciences, occurs in stellar and planetary interiors in regions which are stable according to the…
Regions of stellar and planetary interiors that are unstable according to the Schwarzschild criterion, but stable according to the Ledoux criterion, are subject to a form of oscillatory double-diffusive (ODD) convection often called…
During most stages of stellar evolution the nuclear burning of lighter to heavier elements results in a radial composition profile which is stabilizing against buoyant acceleration, with light material residing above heavier material.…
We present the first three-dimensional simulations of fingering convection performed in a parameter regime close to the one relevant for astrophysics, and reveal the existence of simple asymptotic scaling laws for turbulent heat and…
Oscillatory double-diffusive convection (ODDC) (also known as semi- convection) refers to a type of double diffusive instability that occurs in regions of planetary and stellar interiors which have a destabilizing thermal stratification and…
Iron-rich layers are known to form in the stellar subsurface through a combination of gravitational settling and radiative levitation. Their presence, nature and detailed structure can affect the excitation process of various stellar…