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Partially Ionized Plasmas in Astrophysics

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Abstract

Partially ionized plasmas are found across the Universe in many different astrophysical environments. They constitute an essential ingredient of the solar atmosphere, molecular clouds, planetary ionospheres and protoplanetary disks, among other environments, and display a richness of physical effects which are not present in fully ionized plasmas. This review provides an overview of the physics of partially ionized plasmas, including recent advances in different astrophysical areas in which partial ionization plays a fundamental role. We outline outstanding observational and theoretical questions and discuss possible directions for future progress.

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Notes

  1. The Jeans mass is the largest mass of an isothermal sphere of uniform density \(\rho_{0}\) that can be supported by the thermal pressure gradient against its own self-gravity (Jeans 1902), and is given by

    $$ M_{J} \equiv\frac{\pi^{5/2}}{6} \frac{c_{\mathrm{s}}^{3}}{G^{3/2} \rho_{0}^{1/2}}, $$
    (193)

    where \(c_{\mathrm{s}} = \sqrt{kT/\mu}\) is the sound speed, \(T\) is the gas temperature, \(k\) is Boltzmann’s constant and \(\mu\) is the mean particle mass in the gas.

  2. In this section, for consistency with the most frequent convention in the field, we use cgs units.

  3. Also known as the hydrodynamic pressure, this is the pressure exerted by the bulk velocity of the flow, \(v\), given by \(\rho v^{2}\).

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Acknowledgements

JLB and RS want to acknowledge financial support from MINECO AYA2014-54485-P, MINECO AYA2017-85465-P and FEDER Funds, from The Leverhulme Trust under grant IN-2014-016, as well as financial support from “Conselleria d’Innovació, Recerca i Turisme del Govern Balear to IAC3. RS acknowledges the “Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad” and the “Conselleria d’Innovació, Recerca i Turisme del Govern Balear (Pla de ciència, tecnologia, innovació i emprenedoria 2013–2017)” for the “Ramón y Cajal” grant RYC-2014-14970. The results presented in this review by MK were obtained within the NFN project S116 “Pathways to Habitability” of the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) and its related subprojects S11606-N16, S11607-N16. IA, IFS, and MK also acknowledge the support of the FWF projects P25587-N27, P25640-N27, and Leverhulme Trust grant IN-2014-016. IFS and MK acknowledge FWF project I2939-N27 and grant No. 16-52-14006 of the Russian Fund for Basic Research, as well as RAS SB research program (project II.10 No. 0307-2016-0002). IA was partially supported by Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation Grant RFMEFI61617X0084. TZ acknowledges support from FWF project P30695-N27 and from the Georgian Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation projects DI-2016-17 and 217146. Parallel computations crucial for the present study have been performed at the Supercomputing Center of the Lomonosov Moscow State University and at the SB RAS Siberian Super-Computing Center (SSCC) and Computation Center of Novosibirsk State University. EK and MCV are grateful for support by the Spanish Ministry of Science through the project AYA2014-55078-P and by the European Research Council in the frame of the FP7 Specific Program IDEAS through the Starting Grant ERC-2011-StG 277829-SPIA. All the authors want to thank ISSI for the support to the ISSI team on “Partially Ionized Plasmas in Astrophysics (PIPA)” and providing a collaborative environment for research and communication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament de Física & Institut d’Aplicacions Computacionals de Codi Comunitari (IAC3), Universitat de les Illes Balears, 07122, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    José Luis Ballester & Roberto Soler

  2. Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics (MSU SINP), Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, 119992, Moscow, Russia

    Igor Alexeev

  3. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, C/Vía Láctea s/n, La Laguna, 38205, Tenerife, Spain

    Manuel Collados & Elena Khomenko

  4. Centre for Astrophysics & Relativity, School of Mathematical Sciences, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland

    Turlough Downes

  5. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Mail Code 674.0, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA

    Robert F. Pfaff

  6. Solar Physics Laboratory, Heliophysics Science Division, Goddard Space Flight Center, Mail Code 671, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA

    Holly Gilbert

  7. Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Schmiedlstrasse 6, 8042, Graz, Austria

    Maxim Khodachenko & Teimuraz Zaqarashvili

  8. Institute of Laser Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia

    Ildar F. Shaikhislamov

  9. Instituto de Radioastronomia y Astrofísica (IRyA), UNAM, Campus Morelia, Apdp Postal 3-72 (Xangari), Morelia, Michoacán, 58089, México

    Enrique Vázquez-Semadeni

  10. Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Teimuraz Zaqarashvili

Authors
  1. José Luis Ballester
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  2. Igor Alexeev
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  3. Manuel Collados
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  4. Turlough Downes
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  5. Robert F. Pfaff
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  6. Holly Gilbert
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  7. Maxim Khodachenko
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  8. Elena Khomenko
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  9. Ildar F. Shaikhislamov
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  10. Roberto Soler
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  11. Enrique Vázquez-Semadeni
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  12. Teimuraz Zaqarashvili
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to José Luis Ballester.

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Ballester, J.L., Alexeev, I., Collados, M. et al. Partially Ionized Plasmas in Astrophysics. Space Sci Rev 214, 58 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-018-0485-6

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