Dynamic Localised Turbulent Diffusion and its Impact on the Galactic Ecosystem

TL;DR

This paper introduces a dynamic localised Smagorinsky model for turbulent diffusion in galaxy simulations, improving accuracy over traditional models by reducing over-diffusion and better capturing turbulence effects in galactic environments.

Contribution

The paper presents a new dynamic localised Smagorinsky model that adapts turbulent diffusivity locally, enhancing the realism of galaxy evolution simulations and other astrophysical hydrodynamics applications.

Findings

Reduces over-diffusion in shear flows

Improves density contrast in turbulence tests

Maintains galactic disc stability and affects metal mixing

Abstract

Modelling the turbulent diffusion of thermal energy, momentum, and metals is required in all galaxy evolution simulations due to the ubiquity of turbulence in galactic environments. The most commonly employed diffusion model, the Smagorinsky model, is known to be over-diffusive due to its strong dependence on the fluid velocity shear. We present a method for dynamically calculating a more accurate, locally appropriate, turbulent diffusivity: the dynamic localised Smagorinsky model. We investigate a set of standard astrophysically-relevant hydrodynamical tests, and demonstrate that the dynamic model curbs over-diffusion in non-turbulent shear flows and improves the density contrast in our driven turbulence experiments. In galactic discs, we find that the dynamic model maintains the stability of the disc by preventing excessive angular momentum transport, and increases the metal-mixing timescale in the interstellar medium. In both our isolated Milky Way-like galaxies and cosmological simulations, we find that the interstellar and circumgalactic media are particularly sensitive to the treatment of turbulent diffusion. We also examined the global gas enrichment fractions in our cosmological simulations, to gauge the potential effect on the formation sites and population statistics of Population III stars and supermassive black holes, since they are theorised to be sensitive to the metallicity of the gas out of which they form. The dynamic model is, however, not for galaxy evolution studies only. It can be applied to all astrophysical hydrodynamics simulations, including those modelling stellar interiors, planetary formation, and star formation.