2008/12/19 by Eunwoo Choi, Jongsoo Kim, Paul J. Wiita · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Ambipolar diffusion #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Classical mechanics #Computational Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamics #Computational physics #Diffusion #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Magnetic field #Magnetohydrodynamic drive #Magnetohydrodynamics #Mechanics #Physics #Plasma #Quantum mechanics #Statistical physics #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0067-0049/181/2/413
25 pages, 5 figures, ApJS accepted
arxiv created 2008/12/19 · openalex publication_date 2009/03/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We describe a method for incorporating ambipolar diffusion in the strong coupling approximation into a multidimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) code based on the total variation diminishing scheme. Contributions from ambipolar diffusion terms are included by explicit finite-difference operators in a fully unsplit way, maintaining second-order accuracy. The divergence-free condition of magnetic fields is exactly ensured at all times by a flux-interpolated constrained transport scheme. The super time-stepping method is used to accelerate the time step in high-resolution calculations and/or in strong ambipolar diffusion. We perform two test problems, the steady-state oblique C-type shocks and the decay of Alfvén waves, confirming the accuracy and robustness of our numerical approach. Results from the simulations of the compressible MHD turbulence with ambipolar diffusion show the flexibility of our method as well as its ability to follow complex MHD flows in the presence of ambipolar diffusion. These simulations show that the dissipation rate of the MHD turbulence is strongly affected by the strength of ambipolar diffusion.