1997/10/09 by M W Sincell, Sincell, M W, M Gehmeyr +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9710095
arxiv created 1997/10/09 · openalex publication_date 1997/10/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We solve the equations of radiation hydrodynamics in the two-temperature fluid approximation on an adaptive grid. The temperature structure depends upon the electron-ion energy exchange length, lei, and the electron conduction length, lec. Three types of radiating shock structure are observed: subcritical, where preheating of the unshocked gas is negligible; electron supercritical, where radiation preheating raises the temperature of the unshocked electron fluid to be equal to the final electron temperature; supercritical, where preheating and electron-ion energy exchange raise the preshock Te,i to their final post shock values. No supercritical shock develops when lei is larger than the photospheric depth of the shocked gas because a negligible amount of the ion energy is transferred to the electrons and the shock is weakly radiating. Electron conduction smooths the Te profile on a length scale lec, reducing the radiation flux.