Abstract
When magnetic forces are present in a partially ionized medium, the plasma drifts with respect to the neutrals. This plasma—neutral drift, which is known as ambipolar diffusion, occurs in all partially ionized astrophysical systems, including portions of the interstellar medium, protostellar accretion disks, and the chromosphere of the Sun and other cool stars. Ambipolar drift redistributes magnetic flux, which can trigger star formation. It affects short wavelength interstellar turbulence, the structure of interstellar shocks, flow driven instabilities, and the nature of magnetic reconnection. Energy dissipated by ion-neutral friction can be an important source of heat. This chapter reviews ambipolar drift as a process and discusses some of the implications.
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Notes
- 1.
In laboratory plasma physics, the term “ambipolar diffusion” typically refers not to plasma-neutral drift, but to diffusion of electrons and ions at the geometric mean of their single species diffusion rates due to electrostatic coupling.
- 2.
In most treatments of ambipolar drift, “ion” is used in place of “plasma”. This is accurate in the sense that the electrons contribute little to momentum exchange. In this paper, we use “plasma” when the electrons and ions can be treated as a single fluid, as distinguished from situations in which the Hall effect is important and the charged species must be treated as multiple fluids.
- 3.
We can assume quasineutrality, \(n_{e} \sim Zn_{i}\), where Z is the ion charge, as long as the lengthscales of interest are much longer than the electron Debye length, \(7(T_{e}/n_{e})^{1/2}\) cm; this allows us to solve a single continuity equation.
- 4.
Note, however, that a pile of red and blue socks, observed from a distance, may simply look like a pile of purple socks, and that even after the colors have run together it might be possible to separate individual molecules of red and blue dye and restore the socks to their original states. The true origin of irreversibility in statistical mechanics is a subtle problem, far beyond the scope of this chapter.
- 5.
Disturbances which propagate parallel to the magnetic field are not directly affected by it, and shock formation requires only that the propagation speed exceed v S . At intermediate angles, “fast”, “slow”, and possibly intermediate shocks can develop. Since the qualitative effects of ambipolar drift appear in the perpendicular case we restrict ourselves to that.
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the many colleagues and collaborators with whom I have discussed ambipolar diffusion over the years. This work was partially supported by NSF Grant PHY 0821899, which funds the Center for Magnetic Self-Organization.
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Zweibel, E.G. (2015). Ambipolar Diffusion. In: Lazarian, A., de Gouveia Dal Pino, E., Melioli, C. (eds) Magnetic Fields in Diffuse Media. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 407. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44625-6_11
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