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We used boxes from the Catalogue for Astrophysical Turbulence Simulations (CATS) suite. In particular, CATS has driven MHD turbulent box simulations with varying Mach numbers (and no self-gravity). These simulations solve the ideal MHD equations using the Cho-ENO method, and they are solenoidally driven (like a spoon held very straight vertically stirring a coffee cup!)
We explored:
sonic Mach numbers of 0.7, 1.2, and 4.0 (ratio of the typical speed of perturbations to the sound speed in the fluid)
Alfvénic Mach numbers of 0.7 and 2.0 (this is the ratio of speed of the perturbations relative to the speed of magnetic waves supported by magnetic tension, which are called Alfvén waves).
The raw simulation data is publicly available through the CATS website.
These are sample density field slices of our MHD simulation sets, visualized with a logarithmic color map. We see the correlation between higher sonic and Alfvénic Mach numbers, and more small-scale, high-density filaments. Reduced velocity within the turbulent flow gives the smaller-scale energy more time to dissipate. This process reduces the overall intensity of small-scale fluctuations, which leads to smoothing, or blending, of filamentary structures within the fluid.
References
Burkhart et al. 2020
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