A Simulation for a Planetary Nebular Plasma

A plasma simulation code is applied to interpret the instabilities in an expanding planetary nebula. The temperature of the central star of a planetary nebula is assumed as above 50,000 K. Most of the atoms are ionized at this temperature. Since ionization cannot be neglected for such a hot plasma,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astrophysics and space science 1997-07, Vol.251 (1-2), p.227-230
Main Authors: Kandemir, Gulcin, Boydag, Senel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astrophysics
Drift
Electrostatics
Fourier transforms
Instability
Ionization
Mathematical analysis
Nebulae
Nonlinearity
Simulation
Stability
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A plasma simulation code is applied to interpret the instabilities in an expanding planetary nebula. The temperature of the central star of a planetary nebula is assumed as above 50,000 K. Most of the atoms are ionized at this temperature. Since ionization cannot be neglected for such a hot plasma, the electrostatic instability should be taken into account. In the one dimensional electrostatic simulation, Maxwell and Vlasov equations are used and the fast Fourier transform is applied. The calculated drift velocity in the simulation is found comparable with the expansion velocity of a planetary nebula. The linear and non-linear behaviors of the simulated nebular plasma have been investigated in phase space; the simulation results agree with the theory.
ISSN:0004-640X
1572-946X
DOI:10.1023/A:1000794302902