AAS 206th Meeting, 29 May - 2 June 2005
Session 38 Interstellar Medium, H II Regions and Molecular Clouds
Poster, Wednesday, 10:00am-7:00pm, Thursday, 9:20am-2:00pm, June 1, 2005, Ballroom A

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[38.13] An MHD Study of Turbulent Mixing Layers

A. Esquivel (University of Wisconsin-Madison), R. A. Benjamin (University of Wisconsin-Whitewater), J. Cho (Chungnam National University), A. Lazarian (University of Wisconsin-Madison), S. N. Leitner (Wesleyan University)

Observations of highly ionized species (O VI, C IV, N V, Si IV ) in the interstellar medium (ISM) indicate the existence of substantial amounts of plasma at Temperatures of T~ 105. To explain the line ratios observed, it has been proposed to be the result of mixing by turbulence at the interfaces between hot (T~106) and warm (T~104) media. In addition, the the ISM is magnetized. And the magnetic field is expected to be a controlling factor that can suppress the instabilities that lead to the onset of turbulence at such interfaces. We present results of numerical simulations of turbulent mixing layers, using a MHD code with radiative cooling. With a more complete exploration of parameter space, this work will provide more reliable diagnostics of turbulent mixing layers than those available today.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: esquivel@astro.wisc.edu

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #2
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.