James Clerk Maxwell and the dynamics of astrophysical discs

Details James Clerk Maxwell and the dynamics of astrophysical discs James Clerk Maxwell and the dynamics of astrophysical discs

2008-02-10

arxiv.org/abs/0802.1333v1

Phil.Trans.Roy.Soc.Lond.A366:1707-1715,2008

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

9 pages, to be published in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, based on the meeting "Maxwell 150 Years On", Aberdeen, September 2006

Scientific paper

10.1098/rsta.2007.2180

Maxwell's investigations into the stability of Saturn's rings provide one of the earliest analyses of the dynamics of astrophysical discs. Current research in planetary rings extends Maxwell's kinetic theory to treat dense granular gases of particles undergoing moderately frequent inelastic collisions. Rather than disrupting the rings, local instabilities may be responsible for generating their irregular radial structure. Accretion discs around black holes or compact stars consist of a plasma permeated by a tangled magnetic field and may be compared with laboratory fluids through an analogy that connects Maxwell's researches in electromagnetism and viscoelasticity. A common theme in this work is the appearance of a complex fluid with a dynamical constitutive equation relating the stress in the medium to the history of its deformation.

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