Published August 1990 | Version v1
Journal article

Global effects of thermal conduction on two-phase media

  • 1. California Univ., Berkeley (USA)
  • 2. Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, Boulder, CO (USA)

Description

The evolution of two-phase systems of astrophysical gases which change mass between the phases is studied to see whether a steady state is ever reached. The criterion for thermal instability in a cloudy medium is derived. The evolution of the pressure and density of the intercloud medium under the combined effects of heating and radiative cooling of the intercloud gas on the one hand and evaporation and condensation of the clouds on the other is determined. The equilibrium density to which the system evolves is determined for the case when the pressure is fixed. The theory is illustrated by the case in which the intercloud gas is heated by Compton scattering in a hard radiation field and cooled by bremsstrahlung and inverse Compton scattering. 37 refs

Additional details

Additional titles

Augmented title (English)
In astrophysical plasmas

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Astrophysical Journal
Journal Volume
358
Series
Astrophys. J.
Journal Page Range
375-391
ISSN
0004-637X
CODEN
ASJOA