arXiv subjects

Tsuyoshi Inoue

Publications and source records attributed to Tsuyoshi Inoue.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Turbulent Reconnection in Relativistic Plasmas And Effects of Compressibility

We report turbulence effects on magnetic reconnection in relativistic plasmas using 3-dimensional relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamics simulations. We found reconnection rate became independent of the plasma resistivity due to turbulence effects similarly to non-relativistic cases. We also found compressible turbulence effects modified the turbulent reconnection rate predicted in non-relativistic incompressible plasmas; The reconnection rate saturates and even decays as the injected velocity approaches to the Alfvén velocity. Our results indicate the compressibility cannot be neglected when compressible component becomes about half of incompressible mode occurring when the Alfvén Mach number reaches about $0.3$. The obtained maximum reconnection rate is around $0.05$ to $0.1$, which will be able to reach around $0.1$ to $0.2$ if injection scales are comparable to the sheet length.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Diffusion of Cosmic Rays in a Multiphase Interstellar Medium Swept-Up by a Supernova Remnant Blast Wave

Supernova remnants (SNRs) are one of the most energetic astrophysical events and are thought to be the dominant source of Galactic cosmic rays (CRs). A recent report on observations from the Fermi satellite has shown a signature of pion decay in the gamma-ray spectra of SNRs. This provides strong evidence that high-energy protons are accelerated in SNRs. The actual gamma-ray emission from pion decay should depend on the diffusion of CRs in the interstellar medium. In order to quantitatively analyse the diffusion of high-energy CRs from acceleration sites, we have performed test particle numerical simulations of CR protons using a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulation of an interstellar medium swept-up by a blast wave. We analyse the diffusion of CRs at a length scale of order a few pc in our simulated SNR, and find the diffusion of CRs is precisely described by a Bohm diffusion, which is required for efficient acceleration at least for particles with energies above 30 TeV for a realistic interstellar medium. Although we find the possibility of a superdiffusive process (travel distance proportional to t^0.75) in our simulations, its effect on CR diffusion at the length scale of the turbulence in the SNR is limited.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

High-mass star formation triggered by collision between CO filaments in N159 West in the Large Magellanic Cloud

We have carried out 13CO(J=2-1) observations of the active star-forming region N159 West in the LMC with ALMA. We have found that the CO distribution at a sub-pc scale is highly elongated with a small width. These elongated clouds called "filaments" show straight or curved distributions with a typical width of 0.5-1.0pc and a length of 5-10pc. All the known infrared YSOs are located toward the filaments. We have found broad CO wings of two molecular outflows toward young high-mass stars in N159W-N and N159W-S, whose dynamical timescale is ~10^4 yrs. This is the first discovery of protostellar outflow in external galaxies. For N159W-S which is located toward an intersection of two filaments we set up a hypothesis that the two filaments collided with each other ~10^5 yrs ago and triggered formation of the high-mass star having ~37 Mo. The colliding clouds show significant enhancement in linewidth in the intersection, suggesting excitation of turbulence in the shocked interface layer between them as is consistent with the magneto-hydro-dynamical numerical simulations (Inoue & Fukui 2013). This turbulence increases the mass accretion rate to ~6x10^-4 Mo yr^-1, which is required to overcome the stellar feedback to form the high-mass star.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

The Formation and Destruction of Molecular Clouds and Galactic Star Formation

We describe an overall picture of galactic-scale star formation. Recent high-resolution magneto-hydrodynamical simulations of two-fluid dynamics with cooling/heating and thermal conduction have shown that the formation of molecular clouds requires multiple episodes of supersonic compression. This finding enables us to create a scenario in which molecular clouds form in interacting shells or bubbles on a galactic scale. First we estimate the ensemble-averaged growth rate of molecular clouds over a timescale larger than a million years. Next we perform radiation hydrodynamics simulations to evaluate the destruction rate of magnetized molecular clouds by the stellar FUV radiation. We also investigate the resultant star formation efficiency within a cloud which amounts to a low value (a few percent) if we adopt the power-law exponent -2.5 for the mass distribution of stars in the cloud. We finally describe the time evolution of the mass function of molecular clouds over a long timescale (>1Myr) and discuss the steady state exponent of the power-law slope in various environments.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

On cosmic-ray production efficiency at supernova remnant shocks propagating into realistic diffuse interstellar medium

Using three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics simulations, we show that the efficiency of cosmic-ray (CR) production at supernova remnants (SNRs) is over-predicted if it could be estimated based on proper motion measurements of H$α$ filaments in combination with shock-jump conditions. Density fluctuations of upstream medium make shock waves rippled and oblique almost everywhere. The kinetic energy of the shock wave is transferred into that of downstream turbulence as well as thermal energy which is related to the shock velocity component normal to the shock surface. Our synthetic observation shows that the CR acceleration efficiency as estimated from a lower downstream plasma temperature, is overestimated by 10-40%, because rippled shock does not immediately dissipate all upstream kinetic energy.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

Thermal instability and multi-phase interstellar medium in the first galaxies

We examine the linear stability and nonlinear growth of the thermal instability in isobarically contracting gas with various metallicities and FUV field strengths. When the H2 cooling is suppressed by FUV fields (G_0>10^-3) or the metallicity is high enough (Z/Zs>10^-3), the interstellar medium is thermally unstable in the temperature range 100-7000 K owing to the cooling by CII and OI fine-structure lines. In this case, a bi-phasic medium with a bimodal density probability distribution is formed as a consequence of the thermal instability. The characteristic scales of the thermal instability become smaller with increasing metallicity. Comparisons of the nonlinear simulations with different resolution indicates that the maximum scale of the thermal instability should be resolved with more than 60 cells to follow runaway cooling driven by the thermal instability. Under sufficiently weak FUV fields and with low metallcity, the density range of the thermal instability shrinks owing to dominance of H2 cooling. As the FUV intensity is reduced, bi-phasic structure becomes less remarkable and disappears eventually. Our basic results suggest that, in early galaxies, i) the thermal instability has little effect for the medium with Z/Zs<10^-4, ii) fragmentation by the thermal instability could determine mass spectrum of star clusters for 10^-4 0.04, although the threshold metallicity depends on the conditions such as thermal pressure, FUV strength and redshift.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

Evaporation of grain-surface species by shock waves in proto-planetary disk

Recent ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) observations of young protostellar objects detected warm SO emission, which could be associated with a forming protostellar disk. In order to investigate if such warm gas can be produced by accretion shock onto the forming disk, we calculate the sputtering and thermal desorption of various grain surface species in one dimensional shock waves. We find that thermal desorption is much more efficient than the sputtering in the post-shock region. While H$_{2}$O can be thermally desorbed, if the accretion velocity is larger than 8 km s$^{-1}$ with the pre-shock gas number density of 10$^{9}$ cm$^{-3}$, SO is desorbed, if the accretion velocity $\gtrsim$ 2 km s$^{-1}$ and $\gtrsim$ 4km s$^{-1}$, with the pre-shock density of 10$^{9}$ cm$^{-3}$ and 10$^{8}$ cm$^{-3}$, respectively. We also find that the column density of hydrogen nuclei in warm post-shock gas is $N_{\rm warm} \sim 10^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2013

Critical Magnetic Field Strength for Suppression of the Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability in Plasmas

The critical strength of a magnetic field required for the suppression of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) is investigated numerically by using a two-dimensional single-mode analysis. For the cases of MHD parallel shocks, the RMI can be stabilized as a result of the extraction of vorticity from the interface. A useful formula describing a critical condition for MHD RMI has been introduced, and which is successfully confirmed by the direct numerical simulations. The critical field strength is found to be largely depending on the Mach number of the incident shock. If the shock is strong enough, even low-$β$ plasmas can be subject to the growth of the RMI.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2013

Formation of Massive Molecular Cloud Cores by Cloud-cloud Collision

Recent observations of molecular clouds around rich massive star clusters including NGC3603, Westerlund 2, and M20 revealed that the formation of massive stars could be triggered by a cloud-cloud collision. By using three-dimensional, isothermal, magnetohydrodynamics simulations with the effect of self-gravity, we demonstrate that massive, gravitationally unstable, molecular cloud cores are formed behind the strong shock waves induced by the cloud-cloud collision. We find that the massive molecular cloud cores have large effective Jeans mass owing to the enhancement of the magnetic field strength by shock compression and turbulence in the compressed layer. Our results predict that massive molecular cloud cores formed by the cloud-cloud collision are filamentary and threaded by magnetic fields perpendicular to the filament.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2013

Thermal Instability behind a Shock Wave in HI and Molecular Clouds

We performed one-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations with detailed cooling, heating and chemical processes to examine the thermal stability of shocked gas in cold neutral medium (CNM) and molecular clouds. We find that both CNM and molecular clouds can be thermally unstable in the cooling layer behind the shock wave. The characteristic wavelength of the thermal instability ranges from 10^-5 pc to 0.1 pc in the CNM, and from 10^-7 pc to 0.1 pc in the molecular clouds. This coincides with the size of observed tiny scale structures in the CNM and molecular clouds, indicating that the thermal instability in the shocked gas could be a formation mechanism of these tiny structures in the interstellar medium. We have also calculated the e-folding number of the thermal instability to estimate the amplification of the density fluctuation in the shocked gas. Density perturbations in the CNM grow by a factor of exp(5)~150, whereas the perturbations in the molecular clouds grow only by a factor of a few behind a high Mach number shock. The amplification factor is larger at lower densities and higher velocities. Formation of very small-scale structures by thermal instability in shocked gas is more effective in lower densities.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2013

Origin of Radially Aligned Magnetic Fields in Young Supernova Remnants

It has been suggested by radio observations of polarized synchrotron emissions that downstream magnetic field in some young supernova remnants are oriented radially. We study magnetic field distribution of turbulent supernova remnant driven by the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability -- in other words, the effect of rippled shock -- by using three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics simulations. We find that the induced turbulence has radially biased anisotropic velocity dispersion that leads to a selective amplification of the radial component of the magnetic field. The Richtmyer-Meshkov instability is induced by the interaction between the shock and upstream density fluctuations. Future high-resolution polarization observations can distinguish the following candidates responsible for the upstream density fluctuations: (i) inhomogeneity caused by the cascade of large-scale turbulence in the ISM so-called the big-power-law-in-the-sky, (ii) structures generated by the Drury instability in the cosmic-ray modified shock, and (iii) fluctuations induced by the non-linear feedback of the cosmic-ray streaming instability.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Explicit-Implicit Scheme for Relativistic Radiation Hydrodynamics

We propose an explicit-implicit scheme for numerically solving Special Relativistic Radiation Hydrodynamic (RRHD) equations, which ensures a conservation of total energy and momentum (matter and radiation). In our scheme, 0th and 1st moment equations of the radiation transfer equation are numerically solved without employing a flux-limited diffusion (FLD) approximation. For an hyperbolic term, of which the time scale is the light crossing time when the flow velocity is comparable to the speed of light, is explicitly solved using an approximate Riemann solver. Source terms describing an exchange of energy and momentum between the matter and the radiation via the gas-radiation interaction are implicitly integrated using an iteration method. The implicit scheme allows us to relax the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy condition in optically thick media, where heating/cooling and scattering timescales could be much shorter than the dynamical timescale. We show that our numerical code can pass test problems of one- and two-dimensional radiation energy transport, and one-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics. Our newly developed scheme could be useful for a number of relativistic astrophysical problems. We also discuss how to extend our explicit-implicit scheme to the relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamics.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Richtmyer-Meshkov Type Instability of a Current Sheet in a Relativistically Magnetized Plasma

Linear stability of a current sheet that is subject to an impulsive acceleration due to a shock passage is studied with the effect of guide magnetic field. We find that the current sheet embedded in relativistically magnetized plasma always shows a Richtmyer-Meshkov type instability, while it depends on the density structure in the Newtonian limit. The growth of the instability is expected to generate turbulence around the current sheet that can induce so-called turbulent reconnection whose rate is essentially free from plasma resistivity. Thus, the instability can be applied as a triggering mechanism of rapid magnetic energy release in variety of high-energy astrophysical phenomena such as pulsar wind nebulae, gamma-ray bursts, and active galactic nuclei, where the shock wave is supposed to play a crucial role.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Magnetic Field Amplification Associated with the Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability

The amplification of a magnetic field due to the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) is investigated by two-dimensional MHD simulations. Single-mode analysis is adopted to reveal definite relation between the nonlinear evolution of RMI and the field enhancement. It is found that an ambient magnetic field is stretched by fluid motions associated with the RMI, and the strength is amplified significantly by more than two orders of magnitude. The saturation level of the field is determined by a balance between the amplified magnetic pressure and the thermal pressure after shock passage. This effective amplification can be achieved in a wide range of the conditions for the RMI such as the Mach number of an incident shock and the density ratio at a contact discontinuity. The results suggest that the RMI could be a robust mechanism of the amplification of interstellar magnetic fields and cause the origin of localized strong fields observed at the shock of supernova remnants.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Formation of Turbulent and Magnetized Molecular Clouds via Accretion Flows of HI Clouds

Using 3D MHD simulation with the effects of radiative cooling/heating, chemical reactions, and thermal conduction, we investigate the formation of molecular cloud in the ISM. We consider the formation of molecular cloud by accretion of the HI clouds as suggested in recent observations. The simulation shows that the initial HI medium is compressed and piled up behind the shock waves induced by the accretion flows. Since the initial medium is highly inhomogeneous as a consequence of the thermal instability, the formed molecular cloud becomes very turbulent owing to the development of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability. The structure of the post shock region is composed of dense cold gas (T<100 K) and diffuse warm gas (T>1,000 K), which are spatially well mixed owing to the turbulence. Because the energy source of the turbulence is the accretion flows, the turbulence is highly anisotropic biased toward the direction of accretion flows. The kinetic energy of the turbulence dominates the thermal, magnetic, and gravitational energies in the total 10 Myr evolution. However, the kinetic energy measured by using the CO-fraction-weighted density is comparable to the other energies. This suggests that the true kinetic energy of turbulence in molecular cloud as a hole can be much larger than the kinetic energy of turbulence estimated by line-width of molecular emissions. The clumps in the molecular cloud show statistically homogeneous evolution as follows: The typical plasma beta of the clumps is roughly constant ~ 0.4. The size-velocity dispersion relation show dv ~ 1.5 km s^{-1} (l/1 pc)^{0.5}, irrespective of the density. The clumps evolve toward magnetically supercritical, gravitationally unstable cores. The clumps seem to evolve into cores that satisfy the condition for fragmentation into binary. These statistical properties may provide the initial condition of star formation.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2012

Enhanced Dissipation Rate of Magnetic Field in Striped Pulsar Winds by the Effect of Turbulence

In this letter we report on turbulent acceleration of the dissipation of magnetic field in the postshock re- gion of a Poynting flux-dominated flow, such as the Crab pulsar wind nebula. We have performed two- dimensional resistive relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations of subsonic turbulence driven by the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability at the shock fronts of the Poynting flux-dominated flows in pulsar winds. We find that turbulence stretches current sheets which substantially enhances the dissipation of magnetic field, and that most of the initial magnetic field energy is dissipated within a few eddy-turnover times. We also develop a simple analytical model for turbulent dissipation of magnetic field that agrees well with our simulations. The analytical model indicates that the dissipation rate does not depend on resistivity even in the small resistivity limit. Our findings can possibly alleviate the σ-problem in the Crab pulsar wind nebulae.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Toward Understanding the Cosmic-ray Acceleration at Young Supernova Remnants Interacting with Interstellar Clouds: Possible Applications to RX J1713.7-3946

Using three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics simulations, we investigate general properties of a blast wave shock interacting with interstellar clouds. The shock-cloud interaction generates a turbulent shell through the vorticity generations. In the turbulent shell, the magnetic field is amplified as a result of turbulent dynamo action. In the case of a young supernova remnant, the corresponding strength of the magnetic field is approximately 1 mG. The propagation speed of the shock wave is significantly stalled in the clouds because of the high density, while the shock maintains a high velocity in the diffuse surrounding. In addition, when the shock wave hits the clouds, reflection shock waves are generated that propagate back into the shocked shell. From these simulation results, many observational characteristics of a young SNR RX J1713.7-3946 that is suggested to be interacting with molecular clouds, can be explained as follows: The reflection shocks can accelerate particles in the turbulent downstream region where the magnetic field strength reaches 1mG, which causes short-time variability of synchrotron X-rays. Since the shock velocity is stalled locally in the clouds, the temperature in the shocked cloud is suppressed below 1 keV. Thus, thermal X-ray line emissions would be faint even if the SNR is interacting with molecular clouds. We also find that the photon index of the $π^0$-decay gamma rays generated by cosmic-ray protons can be 1.5, because the penetration depth of high-energy particles into the clumpy clouds depends on their energy, which is consistent with the recent gamma-ray observation by Fermi space telescope.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

A New numerical scheme for resistive relativistic MHD using method of characteristics

We present a new numerical method of special relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamics with scalar resistivity that can treat a range of phenomena, from nonrelativistic to relativistic (shock, contact discontinuity, and Alfvén wave). The present scheme calculates the numerical flux of fluid by using an approximate Riemann solver, and electromagnetic field by using the method of characteristics. Since this scheme uses appropriate characteristic velocities, it is capable of accurately solving problems that cannot be approximated as ideal magnetohydrodynamics and whose characteristic velocity is much lower than light velocity. The numerical results show that our scheme can solve the above problems as well as nearly ideal MHD problems. Our new scheme is particularly well suited to systems with initially weak magnetic field, and mixed phenomena of relativistic and non-relativistic velocity; for example, MRI in accretion disk, and super Alfvénic turbulence.

astro-ph.HE↗