Microphysical Plasma Relations from Special-relativistic Turbulence

The microphysical, kinetic properties of astrophysical plasmas near accreting compact objects are still poorly understood. For instance, in modern general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations, the relation between the temperature of electrons T e and protons T p is prescribed in terms of sim...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2023-02, Vol.944 (2), p.122
Main Authors: Meringolo, Claudio, Cruz-Osorio, Alejandro, Rezzolla, Luciano, Servidio, Sergio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astrophysics
Black holes
Deposition
Electron energy
Electrons
Fluid flow
Magnetohydrodynamic simulation
Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
Parameters
Particle production
Plasma astrophysics
Protons
Relativistic effects
Supermassive black holes
Temperature ratio
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Summary:The microphysical, kinetic properties of astrophysical plasmas near accreting compact objects are still poorly understood. For instance, in modern general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations, the relation between the temperature of electrons T e and protons T p is prescribed in terms of simplified phenomenological models where the electron temperature is related to the proton temperature in terms of the ratio between the gas and magnetic pressures, or the β parameter. We here present a very comprehensive campaign of two-dimensional kinetic particle-in-cell simulations of special-relativistic turbulence to investigate systematically the microphysical properties of the plasma in the transrelativistic regime. Using a realistic mass ratio between electrons and protons, we analyze how the index of the electron energy distributions κ , the efficiency of nonthermal particle production  , and the temperature ratio  := T e / T p vary over a wide range of values of β and σ . For each of these quantities, we provide two-dimensional fitting functions that describe their behavior in the relevant space of parameters, thus connecting the microphysical properties of the plasma, κ ,  , and  , with the macrophysical ones β and σ . In this way, our results can find application in a wide range of astrophysical scenarios, including the accretion and the jet emission onto supermassive black holes, such as M87* and Sgr A*.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/acaefe