Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2011
Abstract
We present the first three-dimensional simulations of fingering convection performed in a parameter regime close to the one relevant for astrophysics, and reveal the existence of simple asymptotic scaling laws for turbulent heat and compositional transport. These laws can straightforwardly be extrapolated to the true astrophysical regime. Our investigation also indicates that thermocompositional "staircases," a key consequence of fingering convection in the ocean, cannot form spontaneously in the fingering regime in stellar interiors. Our proposed empirically-determined transport laws thus provide simple prescriptions for mixing by fingering convection in a variety of astrophysical situations, and should, from here on, be used preferentially over older and less accurate parameterizations. They also establish that fingering convection does not provide sufficient extra mixing to explain observed chemical abundances in RGB stars.
Repository Citation
Traxler, A. L.,
Garaud, P.,
& Stellmach, S.
(2011). Numerically Determined Transport Laws for Fingering ("Thermohaline") Convection in Astrophysics. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 728 (2), L29.
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/physics/974
DOI
10.1088/2041-8205/728/2/L29
Comments
Available for download is the unpublished, authors' version of this article. The final, publisher's version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/728/2/L29.