Polytropic representation of the kinetic pressure tensor of non-ideal magnetized fluids in equilibrium toroidal structures

Abstract

Non-ideal fluids are generally subject to the occurrence of non-isotropic pressure tensors, whose determination is fundamental in order to characterize their dynamical and thermodynamical properties. This requires the implementation of theoretical frameworks provided by appropriate microscopic and statistical kinetic approaches in terms of which continuum fluid fields are obtained. In this paper, the case of non-relativistic magnetized fluids forming equilibrium toroidal structures in external gravitational fields is considered. Analytical solutions for the kinetic distribution function are explicitly constructed, to be represented by a Chapman–Enskog expansion around a Maxwellian equilibrium. In this way, different physical mechanisms responsible for the generation of non-isotropic pressures are identified and proved to be associated with the kinetic constraints imposed on single and collective particle dynamics by phase-space symmetries and magnetic field. As a major outcome, the validity of a polytropic representation for the kinetic pressure tensors corresponding to each source of anisotropy is established, whereby directional pressures exhibit a specific power-law functional dependence on fluid density. The astrophysical relevance of the solution for the understanding of fluid plasma properties in accretion-disk environments is discussed.