2025/11/16 by Youhei Masada, Tomoya Takiwaki, Masada, Youhei +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.12824
openalex publication_date 2025/11/16 · openalex created_date 2025/11/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We perform three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of two idealized regimes of stellar convection: a cooling-driven model (Model C) and an entropy-gradient-driven model (Model S). The two regimes exhibit striking contrasts: while Model S develops large, relatively stationary eddies excited at depth, Model C is dominated near the surface by intermittent plume-like downflows that produce broad non-Gaussian velocity distributions and a turbulent energy flux that exceeds Model S by nearly an order of magnitude in the upper convection zone. Conventional gradient-diffusion (GD) closures reproduce the transport in Model S but significantly underestimate it in Model C, demonstrating that plume-driven convection lies beyond the scope of local, gradient-based models. To address this, we introduce a Time-Space Double Averaging (TSDA) method that extracts coherent fluctuations, yielding a diagnostic variable \boldsymbolu that peaks where the flux is largest. Building on this insight, we propose a modified GD closure in which the turbulent diffusivity is corrected by a plume-mediated term, achieving quantitative agreement with simulation results. Although the closure requires a calibrated model parameter and a careful choice of the averaging window, it provides a physically transparent framework that links coherent plume dynamics to mean-field transport, and offers a pathway toward improved subgrid models for non-equilibrium stellar convection zones.