Gravitational instability of a dilute fully ionized gas in the presence of the Dufour effect

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the Dufour effect influences gravitational instability in a fully ionized gas using linear irreversible thermodynamics, revealing modifications to the system's stability behavior.

Contribution

It introduces the impact of the Dufour effect on gravitational instability analysis within a thermodynamic framework, a novel aspect in this context.

Findings

Heat flux affects the dispersion relation of the system.

The Dufour effect modifies the conditions for instability.

Thermodynamic forces influence gravitational stability.

Abstract

The gravitational instability of a fully ionized gas is analyzed within the framework of linear irreversible thermodynamics. In particular, the presence of a heat flux corresponding to generalized thermodynamic forces is shown to affect the properties of the dispersion relation governing the stability of this kind of system in certain problems of interest.