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Thermal Conduction and Particle Transport in Strong Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence, with Application to Galaxy Cluster Plasmas

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Benjamin D. G. Chandran1 and Jason L. Maron2

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Galaxy clusters possess turbulent magnetic fields with a dominant scale length lB simeq 1-10 kpc. In the static magnetic field approximation, the thermal conductivity κT for heat transport over distances GtlB in clusters is simeqκSlB/LSe), where κS is the Spitzer thermal conductivity for a nonmagnetized plasma, the length LS(r0) is a characteristic distance that a pair of field lines separated by a distance r0 < lB at one location must be followed before they separate by a distance lB, and ρe is the electron gyroradius. We introduce an analytic Fokker-Planck model and a numerical Monte Carlo model of field-line separation in strong magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence to calculate LS(r0). We also determine LS(r0) using direct numerical simulations of MHD turbulence with zero mean magnetic field. All three approaches, like earlier models, predict that LS asymptotes to a value of order several lB as r0 is decreased toward ld in the large-lB/ld limit, where ld is the dissipation scale, which is taken to be the proton gyroradius. When the turbulence parameters used in the Fokker-Planck and Monte Carlo models are evaluated using direct numerical simulations, the Fokker-Planck model yields LSe) simeq 4.5lB and the Monte Carlo model yields LSe) simeq 6.5lB in the large-lB/ld limit. Extrapolating from our direct numerical simulations to the large-lB/ld limit, we find that LSe) simeq 5lB-10lB, implying that κT simeq 0.1κS-0.2κS in galaxy clusters in the static field approximation. We also discuss the phenomenology of thermal conduction and particle diffusion in the presence of time-varying turbulent magnetic fields. Under the questionable assumption that turbulent resistivity completely reconnects field lines on the timescale lB/u, where u is the rms turbulent velocity, we find that κT is enhanced by a moderate amount relative to the static field estimate for typical cluster conditions.


Subject headings

galaxies: clusters: general; intergalactic medium; MHD; plasmas; turbulence


Dates

Issue 1 (2004 February 10)

Received 2003 January 24, accepted for publication 2003 October 17



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