The Effects of Ambipolar Drift on Reconnection and Dynamos

Details The Effects of Ambipolar Drift on Reconnection and Dynamos The Effects of Ambipolar Drift on Reconnection and Dynamos

Nov 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996aps..dpp..8s01z&link_type=abstract

American Physical Society, Division of Plasma Physics Meeting, November 10-15, 1996, abstract #8S.01

Physics

Plasma Physics

Scientific paper

Tenuous, weakly ionized but highly conducting gases display ambipolar drift of magnetic fieldlines: the lines are tied to the plasma component, but drift with respect to the neutral (or center of mass) component. The drift velocity vD is approximately J×B/ρν c, where ρ is the gas density and ν is the neutral - ion collision frequency. Many of the effects of ambipolar drift are scaled by an ambipolar diffusion coefficient λ_AD≡ V_A^2/ν, from which can be formed the ambipolar Reynolds number R_AD≡ VL/λ_AD. Ambipolar drift is believed to operate in the cool to cold portions of the interstellar gas in galaxies. Ambipolar drift is known to have three properties: it sets a minimum scale L_min below which the field is poorly coupled to the neutral fluid (defined approximately by R_AD(L_min)≈ 1, (2) it acts as a nonlinear diffusion, and mediates the formation of current sheets and sharp moving fronts, and (3) it drives the fluid to a relaxed state in which J× B≈ 0 to the extent permitted by topological constraints. We obtain the RAMHD equations, 3D reduced MHD with ambipolar drift, and use them to explore the effects of ambipolar drift on magnetic reconnection and on mean field dynamo theory as they apply to galaxies.

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