Abstract
We showed in earlier work that a clump embedded in tenuous plasma, which is flowing subsonically relative to the clump, will develop a long thin tail whether the gas in the tail behaves adiabatically or isothermally. This paper presents a criterion for determining if viscous dissipation in a tail with result in heating that will cause such a tail to be wide.
We argue that the observed properties of the tails in NGC 7293 imply that a very strong effective viscous couple exists across each of them. Assuming a strong couple, we calculate the viscous energy dissipation rate per unit volume and derive an upper bound on the number density in a tail in which viscous heating raises the temperature significantly and thus causes broadening. The densities in observed broad tails in Abell 30 exceed this upper bound, and we suggest that the broadening of those tails is due to a phase transition in the tail gas, caused by photo-absorption heating. We comment on the relationship of intermediate-scale structures in clumpy media to the issue of whether or not a global tenous flow can be considered to be mass-loaded.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Arthur, S.J., Dyson, J.E. and Hartquist, T.W.: 1994,Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 269, 1117.
Borkowski, K.J., Harrington, J.P., Tsvetanov, Z. and Clegg, R.E.S.: 1993,Astrophys. J. 415, L47.
Charnley, S.B., Dyson, J.E., Hartquist, T.W. and Williams, D.A.: 1990,Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 243, 405.
Dyson, J.E., Hartquist, T.W. and Biro, S.: 1993,Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 261, 430.
Dyson, J.E., Hartquist, T.W., Malone, M. and Taylor, S.D.: 1995,Rev. Mex. Astron. Astrophys. (Conference Series). Vol. 1, p. 119.
Hartquist, T.W., Dyson, J.E., Pettini, M. and Smith, L.J.: 1986,Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 221, 715.
Klein, R.I., McKee, C.F. and Colella, P.: 1994,Astrophys. J. 420, 213.
Mac Low, M.-M., McKee, C.F., Klein, R.I., Stone, J.M. and Norman, M.L.: 1994,Astrophys. J. 433, 757.
McKee, C.F. and Ostriker, J.P.: 1977,Astrophys. J. 218, 148.
Meaburn, J., Walsh, J.R., Clegg, R.E.S., Walton, N.A., Taylor, D. and Berry, D.S.: 1992,Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 225, 177.
Nejad, L.A.M. and Hartquist, T.W.: 1994,Astrophys. Space Sci. 220, 253.
Nittmann, J., Falle, S.A.E.G. and Gaskell, P.H.: 1982,Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 201, 833.
Osterbrock, D.E.: 1989,Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei (Mill Valley, California: University Science Books).
Rawlings, J.M.C. and Hartquist, T.W.: 1996,Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc., submitted.
Smith, S.J.: 1995, preprint.
Tedds, J.A., Brand, P.W.J.L., Burton, M.G., Chrysostomou, A. and Farnandes, A.J.L.: 1995,Astrophys. Space Sci. 224, 139.
Vorontsov-Velyamonov, B.A.: 1968, in: D.E. Osterbrock and C.R. O'Dell (eds.),IAU Symp. No. 34 —Planetary Nebulae, Reidel, Dordrecht, 256.
Williams, R.J.R., Hartquist, T.W. and Dyson, J.E.: 1995,Astrophys. J. 446, 759.
Woodward, P.R.: 1976,Astrophys. J. 207, 484.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hartquist, T.W., Dyson, J.E. & Williams, R.J.R. Wide intermediate scale structures in mass-loaded flows. Astrophys Space Sci 235, 165–168 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00643600
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00643600