Multi-fluid simulation of solar chromospheric turbulence and heating due to the Thermal Farley-Buneman Instability
Files
First author draft
Date
2023-06-01
Authors
Evans, Samuel
Oppenheim, Meers
Dimant, Yakov
Martinez- Sykora, Juan
Version
First author draft
OA Version
Citation
S. Evans, M. Oppenheim, Y. Dimant, J. Martinez- Sykora. 2023. "Multi-fluid Simulation of Solar Chromospheric Turbulence and Heating Due to the Thermal Farley-Buneman Instability" The Astrophysical Journal: an international review of astronomy and astronomical physics, Volume 949, Issue 2, pp.59-59. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acc5e5
Abstract
Models fail to reproduce observations of the coldest parts of the Sun’s atmosphere, where interactions between multiple ionized and neutral species prevent an accurate MHD representation. This paper argues that a meter-scale electrostatic plasma instability develops in these regions and causes heating. We refer to this instability as the Thermal Farley–Buneman Instability (TFBI). Using parameters from a 2.5D radiative MHD Bifrost simulation, we show that the TFBI develops in many of the colder regions in the chromosphere. This paper also presents the first multifluid simulation of the TFBI and validates this new result by demonstrating close agreement with theory during the linear regime. The simulation eventually develops turbulence, and we characterize the resulting wave-driven heating, plasma transport, and turbulent motions. These results all contend that the effects of the TFBI contribute to the discrepancies between solar observations and radiative MHD models.