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تسجيل مستخدم جديدWave generation and heat flux suppression in astrophysical plasma systems
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Heat flux suppression in collisionless plasmas for a large range of plasma $beta$ is explored using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations with a strong, sustained thermal gradient. We find that a transition takes place between whistler-dominated (high-$beta$) and double-layer-dominated (low-$beta$) heat flux suppression. Whistlers saturate at small amplitude in the low beta limit and are unable to effectively suppress the heat flux. Electrostatic double layers suppress the heat flux to a mostly constant factor of the free streaming value once this transition happens. The double layer physics is an example of ion-electron coupling and occurs on a scale of roughly the electron Debye length. The scaling of ion heating associated with the various heat flux driven instabilities is explored over the full range of $beta$ explored. The range of plasma-$beta$s studied in this work makes it relevant to the dynamics of a large variety of astrophysical plasmas, including the intracluster medium of galaxy clusters, hot accretion flows, stellar and accretion disk coronae, and the solar wind.
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