Oral Presentation

Shock Waves and their Roles in Astrophysical Turbulence

Author(s): Dongsu Ryu (UNIST, Korea), Junseong Park (UNIST, Korea)

Presenter: Dongsu Ryu (UNIST)

Turbulence is ubiquitously present in a variety of astrophysical environments, and shock waves are commonly found in the turbulence. We here present a study of shocks in isothermal, compressible, driven MHD turbulence, focusing on their Mach number distribution and spatial frequency, as well as the energy dissipation at shocks, using numerical simulations. Wide ranges of turbulent Mach number and plasma beta are considered, intending to cover turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) and the intracluster medium (ICM). We show that shocks with their Mach number less than a few times of turbulent Mach number are common, and the shock dissipation of turbulent energy occurs mostly at those shocks. The fraction of turbulent energy dissipation at shocks depends on turbulent Mach number and plasma beta, and is estimated to be ~ 20 – 30 % in the ISM and ICM.