Strong Bow Shocks: Turbulence and An Exact Self-Similar Asymptotic

Marcus DuPont; Andrei Gruzinov; Andrew MacFadyen

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arXiv · 2401.18080

Strong Bow Shocks: Turbulence and An Exact Self-Similar Asymptotic

Marcus DuPont·Andrei Gruzinov·Andrew MacFadyen

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Abstract

We show that strong bow shocks are turbulent and non-universal near the head, but asymptote to a universal steady, self-similar, and analytically solvable flow in the downstream. The turbulence is essentially 3D, and has been confirmed by a 3D simulation. The asymptotic behavior is confirmed with high resolution 2D and 3D simulations of a cold uniform wind encountering both a solid spherical obstacle and stellar wind. This solution is relevant in the context of: (i) probing the kinematic properties of observed high-velocity compact bodies -- e.g., runaway stars and/or supernova ejecta blobs -- flying through the interstellar medium; and (ii) constraining stellar bow shock luminosities invoked by some quasi-periodic eruption (QPE) models.

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Marcus DuPont, Andrei Gruzinov, Andrew MacFadyen. 2024-01-31. Strong Bow Shocks: Turbulence and An Exact Self-Similar Asymptotic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.18080

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