Issue |
A&A
Volume 674, June 2023
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A149 | |
Number of page(s) | 19 | |
Section | Astrophysical processes | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202245120 | |
Published online | 15 June 2023 |
Propagation of Alfvén waves in the dusty interstellar medium
Can we neglect dust inertia in molecular clouds?
AIM, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
e-mail: patrick.hennebelle@cea.fr
Received:
2
October
2022
Accepted:
14
April
2023
Context. Alfvén waves are fundamental magnetized modes that play an important role in the dynamics of magnetized flows such as the interstellar medium (ISM).
Aims. In a weakly ionized medium, their propagation critically depends on the ionization rate as well as on the charge carriers. Depending on the gas density, these may be ions, electrons, or dust grains. The latter are particularly well known to have a drastic influence on the magnetic resistivities in the dense ISM, such as collapsing dense cores. Yet, in most calculations, for numerical reasons, the grain inertia is usually neglected.
Methods. We carried out an analytical investigation of the propagation of Alfvén waves both in a single-size and multi-size grain medium such as the ISM and we obtained exact expressions giving wavenumbers as a function of wave frequencies. These expressions were then solved analytically or numerically by taking into account or neglecting grain inertia.
Results. At long wavelengths, neglecting grain inertia is a very good approximation, however, the situation is rather different for wavelengths shorter than a critical value, which broadly scaled as 1/n, with n being the gas density. More precisely, when inertia is neglected, the waves do not propagate at short wavelengths or, due to the Hall effect, they develop for one circular polarization only, namely, a whistler mode such that ℛe(ω) ∝ k2. The other polarization presents a zero group velocity, namely, ℛe(ω) ∝ k0. When grain inertia is accounted for, the propagation of the two polarizations tend to be more symmetrical and the whistler mode is only present at density higher than ≃108 cm−3. At a lower density, it is replaced by a mode having ℛe(ω) ∝ k≃1.2. Interestingly, one of the polarization presents a distribution, instead of a single ω value. Importantly, for short wavelengths, wave damping is considerably reduced when inertia is properly accounted for.
Conclusions. To properly handle the propagation of Alfvén waves at short wavelengths, it is necessary to self-consistently treat grain inertia. We discuss the possible consequences this may have in the context of diffuse and dense molecular gas regarding turbulence, magnetic braking, and protoplanetary disk formation as well as cosmic ray propagation in the dense ISM.
Key words: waves / magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) / stars: formation / dust, extinction
© The Authors 2023
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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