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Cosmic vortices in hot stars and cool disks

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Abstract

The radiation that permits us to observe cosmic bodies also plays a role in their structure and evolution. While the thermal aspects of the radiation are familiar to fluid dynamicists, at least qualitatively, the dynamical effects of the radiation are perhaps less so, though these effects are becoming quite important in current astrophysical studies. This subject, which I have provisionally been calling photofluiddynamics after some discussion with the late James Lighthill, has a number of applications to cosmic objects. The most massive stars known are very hot and are the sites of vigorous fluid dynamical activity. The processes involved are of interest, not only in themselves, but also in the way they affect the observed features of the hottest stars by forming coherent vortices and magnetic flux tubes. Similar structures in accretion disks, particularly in protoplanetary systems, arise and play important roles in the evolution of those objects. Here, we shall consider only disks that, like the primitive solar nebula, are relatively cool and in which vortices may participate in the formation of planets.

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  1. Astronomy Department, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Edward A. Spiegel

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Communicated by H. Aref

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Spiegel, E.A. Cosmic vortices in hot stars and cool disks. Theor. Comput. Fluid Dyn. 24, 77–93 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00162-009-0172-z

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