Yet Another Modification of Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Waves: Electron Thermal Inertia

TL;DR

This paper explores how electron thermal inertia influences wave properties in relativistic extended magnetohydrodynamics, revealing new superluminous wave modes and altered wave velocities relevant to accretion flow regions.

Contribution

It derives the dispersion relation for RXMHD including electron thermal inertia and identifies new wave modes and velocity surface distortions.

Findings

Identification of three superluminous waves due to electron thermal inertia.

Distortion of phase and group velocity surfaces of fast and Alfvén waves.

Discovery of a scale range where fast wave group velocity is less than Alfvén and slow waves.

Abstract

This study investigates the properties of waves in relativistic extended magnetohydrodynamics (RXMHD), which includes Hall and electron thermal inertia effects. We focus on the case when the electron temperature is ultrarelativistic, and thus, the electron thermal inertia becomes finite at near the proton inertial scale. We derive the linear dispersion relation of RXMHD and find that the Hall and electron thermal inertia effects couple with the displacement current, giving rise to three superluminous waves in addition to the slow, fast, and Alfv\'en waves. We also show that the phase- and group-velocity surfaces of fast and Alfv\'en waves are distorted by the Hall and electron thermal inertia effects. There is a range of scales where the group velocity of fast wave is smaller than that of the Alfv\'en and slow waves. These findings are applicable to a region near the funnel base of low-luminosity accretion flows where electrons can be ultrarelativistic.