Asymptotic, non-linear solutions for ambipolar diffusion in one dimension

TL;DR

This paper investigates the long-term behavior of magnetic fields under ambipolar diffusion in one-dimensional systems, revealing how non-linear processes influence magnetic energy dissipation in astrophysical contexts like neutron stars and molecular clouds.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of non-linear ambipolar diffusion in weakly ionized plasmas, deriving asymptotic solutions for different coupling regimes and highlighting the formation of sharp magnetic gradients.

Findings

Ambipolar diffusion causes magnetic flux to spread and form sharp gradients.

Both weak and strong coupling regimes exhibit flux spreading and current sheet formation.

Results have implications for magnetic energy dissipation in neutron stars and interstellar media.

Abstract

We study the effect of the non-linear process of ambipolar diffusion (joint transport of magnetic flux and charged particles relative to neutral particles) on the long-term behavior of a non-uniform magnetic field in a one-dimensional geometry. Our main focus is the dissipation of magnetic energy inside neutron stars(particularly magnetars), but our results have a wider application, particularly to the interstellar medium and the loss of magnetic flux from collapsing molecular cloud cores. Our system is a weakly ionized plasma in which neutral and charged particles can be converted into each other through nuclear beta decays (or ionization-recombination processes). In the "weak-coupling" limit of infrequent inter-particle interactions, the evolution of the magnetic field is controlled by the beta decay rate and can be described by a non-linear partial integro-differential equation. In the opposite, "strong-coupling" regime, the evolution is controlled by the inter-particle collisions and can be modelled through a non-linear diffusion equation. We show numerically that, in both regimes, ambipolar diffusion tends to spread out the magnetic flux, but, contrary to the normal Ohmic diffusion, it produces sharp magnetic field gradients with associated current sheets around those regions where the magnetic field is weak.