Ambipolar diffusion in large Prandtl number turbulence

Abstract

ABSTRACT We study the effects of ambipolar diffusion (AD) on hydromagnetic turbulence. We consider the regime of large magnetic Prandtl number, relevant to the interstellar medium. In most of the cases, we use the single-fluid approximation where the drift velocity between charged and neutral particles is proportional to the Lorentz force. In two cases we also compare with the corresponding two-fluid model, where ionization and recombination are included in the continuity and momentum equations for the neutral and charged species. The magnetic field properties are found to be well represented by the single-fluid approximation. We quantify the effects of AD on total and spectral kinetic and magnetic energies, the ohmic and AD dissipation rates, the statistics of the magnetic field, the current density, and the linear polarization as measured by the rotationally invariant E and B mode polarizations. We show that the kurtosis of the magnetic field decreases with increasing AD. The E mode polarization changes its skewness from positive values for small AD to negative ones for large AD. Even when AD is weak, changes in AD have a marked effect on the skewness and kurtosis of E, and only a weak effect on those of B. These results open the possibility of employing E and B mode polarizations as diagnostic tools for characterizing turbulent properties of the interstellar medium.