The applicability of relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) and its generalization to two-fluid models (including the Hall and inertial effects) is systematically investigated by using the method of dominant balance in the two-fluid equations. Although proper charge neutrality or quasi-neutrality is the key assumption for all MHD models, this condition is difficult to be met when both relativistic and inertial effects are taken into account. The range of application for each MHD model is illustrated in the space of dimensionless scale parameters. Moreover, the number of field variables of relativistic Hall MHD (RHMHD) is shown to be greater than that of RMHD and Hall MHD. Nevertheless, the RHMHD equations may be solved at a lower computational cost than RMHD in the limit of cold plasma, since root-finding algorithm, which is the most time-consuming part of the RMHD code, is no longer required to compute the primitive variables.
I. INTRODUCTION
Magnetized plasmas subject to relativistic effects are common in various high-energy celestial bodies, such as pulsar, black hole magnetosphere, corona of accretion disk, jet from active galactic nucleus, and gamma-ray burst. Relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) has been used in theoretical and numerical studies as a model to analyze the macroscopic motion of relativistic, magnetized plasmas. Since RMHD ignores the microscopic scales of such as inertial length and gyro-radius, it is well known that the magnetic field is frozen in the plasma motion in the zero resistivity limit. Therefore, RMHD is inappropriate for dealing with magnetic reconnection1,2 at least in the microscopic region where magnetic field lines reconnect. In many cases, magnetic reconnection is a key process in which magnetic energy is efficiently converted into kinetic and thermal energy. In addition, RMHD becomes invalid in the limit of low plasma density or weak magnetic field. The Vlasov–Maxwell equations, on the other hand, are based on first principles and have been solved by Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations in recent years. However, this direct approach is the most computationally expensive and these kinetic models are difficult to solve analytically. Thus, there is a demand for intermediate models which bridge the gap between RMHD and kinetic ones. In this study, we focus on extended RMHD models that include the two-fluid effects, which are expected to be more widely applicable than RMHD while maintaining a moderate computational cost.
In non-relativistic electron-ion plasmas, a model3,4 including the two-fluid effects (i.e., the Hall effect and the electron inertia effect) is called extended MHD (XMHD) in the recent literature.5 The XMHD equations are derived from the two-fluid equations by imposing the quasi-neutrality (QN) condition, which approximately eliminates microscopic motions such as plasma oscillation and cyclotron oscillation. XMHD is also shown to have a Hamiltonian structure that conserves canonical vorticities (instead of magnetic flux).6–9 Due to the electron-inertia effect, magnetic reconnection can occur even in the zero resistivity limit.10–12
Furthermore, the Hall effect is well-known for significantly enhancing the reconnection speed, according to the Global Environment Modeling (GEM) Reconnection Challenge.13 Since the electron-inertia effect manifests itself on an even smaller scale than the Hall effect, Hall MHD14 is often used as well, neglecting only the electron-inertia effect. In the case of electron-positron plasmas, the Hall effect vanishes and only the inertial effect remains, so this model is called inertial MHD (IMHD).5
It is natural to assume that there are also some MHD models that include the relativistic effects alongside the two-fluid effects. Such an extension of RMHD in electron-positron plasma was explored early on the literature.15,16 Additionally, the extension of generalized Ohm's law was attempted and applied to pulsar magnetosphere17 (generalized relativistic Ohm's law is also proposed by Ref. 18 in a different way). Koide19 derived a generalized RMHD model from the relativistic two-fluid equations by imposing the proper charge neutrality (PCN) condition, which will be referred to as relativistic extended MHD (RXMHD) in this paper. A variational principle of RXMHD was later proposed by Kawazura et al.20 The general relativistic version of RXMHD was presented by Koide21 and by Comisso and Asenjo22 using a covariant form. RXMHD was applied to relativistic collisionless magnetic reconnection.23 Relativistic Hall MHD (RHMHD) is similarly obtained by neglecting electron-inertia, and its properties have been studied by Kawazura.24,25 However, for the QN condition to hold in non-relativistic MHD, the flow velocity must be sufficiently slower than the speed of light. Moreover, as will be clarified in this paper, the PCN condition in RMHD actually holds in the limit of neglecting the two-fluid effects. Therefore, hybrid models, which include both the relativistic and two-fluid effects, may violate the charge neutrality condition, requiring careful consideration of the applicability of RXMHD (and RHMHD). In fact, all models bearing the name “MHD” assume either QN or PCN a priori. Once these neutrality conditions (i.e., single-fluid approximation) fail, we should solve the two-fluid equations or kinetic models directly. For example, the two-fluid model for relativistic electron-positron plasmas26 has been solved numerically and applied to the simulations of magnetic reconnection.27
In this study, starting from the relativistic two-fluid equations, we systematically reproduce various MHD models (including RXMHD) using the method of dominant balance28 and theoretically illustrate their scopes of application. Since there are too many dimensionless parameters in the original two-fluid equations, we will not explore all cases but focus only on the realm of MHD where the MHD balances hold; the MHD terms are not negligible but dominant. Specifically, we consider a situation in which the Lorentz force ( term) is dominant in the equation of motion for the center-of-mass velocity of the two fluids. If the pressure term or the electric force is far more dominant than the Lorentz force, the MHD model is unlikely to be applicable.29 Therefore, in order to make nonessential parameters invisible and highlight only the dominant terms, the plasma pressure and the external electric field will be ignored from the beginning. The MHD models are finally classified in terms of three dimensionless parameters corresponding to the scales of the plasma density, the flow velocity, and the external magnetic field. Furthermore, the dimensionless parameters can be reduced to two if the flow velocity is assumed to be on the same order of the Alfvén velocity. The applicability of the various MHD models will be visualized in this parameter space, supposing that a dimensionless coefficient before each term is considered negligible if it is less than, say, . For these relativistic and two-fluidic MHD models, we will write them in the form of a dynamical system and identify the number of the time-evolving field variables u. We will show that RHMHD has more variables than HMHD and RMHD. In the case of RMHD, the right-hand side F(u) is notorious for being an implicit function of u, which requires extra computational cost.30 RHMHD will be shown to resolve this problem of RMHD, although the number of variables increases.
II. BASIC EQUATIONS
A. Two-fluid equations
Momentarily Co-moving Reference Frame (MCRF) refers to the inertial frame co-moving with particles. Physical quantities of relativistic fluid are said to be “proper” when they are observed in the frame co-moving with the velocity v. Therefore, the proper number density is given by , when n is the number density in the reference frame.
B. Transformation into MHD variables
The MHD equations are sometimes called the single-fluid model, assuming that the two species of charged fluid move together approximately; and .
C. Assumption of cold plasma
Let us clarify the number of field variables in the two-fluid equations. From the definitions given above, Eqs. (16), (17), (24), and (25) clearly describe the time evolution of the eight variables and (which correspond to n, vi, , and ui). Maxwell's equations provide the time evolution of the six variables Ei and Bi (which is ), but they must be solved under the two constraints (7) and (8) (which include no time derivative). In fact, we can eliminate the variable because is uniquely determined by Ei via Eq. (7), and the charge conservation law (25) is automatically satisfied by Eqs. (7) and (10). Therefore, in the cold plasma approximation, the two-fluid equations constitute a dynamical system of 13 field variables under 1 constraint in total. In a sense, the degree of freedom is . Even when Ai is used instead of Bi, the Coulomb gauge is imposed instead of and the degree of freedom is the same. Reducing the number of field variables is one of the major purpose of the following MHD approximation.
III. DOMINANT BALANCE
To derive reduced models from the two-fluid equations systematically, we first normalize all terms in the equations and consider the dominant balances that are suitable for magnetized plasma.
A. Normalization
It should be also remarked that we exclude the strongly-relativistic situation such as , in which the Lorenz factor γ becomes much greater than 1 and our estimate is no longer valid. This means a breakdown of the assumed balance32 and strongly relativistic flow regions must be treated separately using a different normalization. For example, we suggest that all the equations should be Lorenz-transformed to the inertia frame moving with the flow speed so that the Lorenz factor becomes .
B. Imposition of MHD balance
Although balance 5 is assumed in this work, we do not claim here that Hall or extended MHD must always satisfy . In electron-ion plasmas, is approximately the ion cyclotron frequency ωci, and the frequency of the whistler wave is known to be higher than ωci, i.e., . As will be shown later in Secs. IV and V, the electron inertia effect ( ) can be neglected due to the smallness of the mass ratio . If we take the limit of , the Hall and extended MHD would be applicable even if .
Due to balances 5 and 6, the number of non-dimensional parameters (namely, the dimension of the parameter space) has been reduced to three; . However, the governing equations are still equivalent to the two-fluid equations. In Sec. IV, we derive reduced models by taking the specific limit of .
IV. REDUCTION TO VARIOUS MHD MODELS
A. Vacuum limit
The limit corresponds to the vacuum state since the right hand side of the Ampère–Maxwell equation (69) vanishes. This limit may be uninteresting because the plasma current is too small to disturb the vacuum magnetic field. For example, the limit of large magnetization parameter inevitably results in this vacuum state (due to ).
As another high magnetization limit , the force-free approximation is widely used.31 When the current is divided into parallel ( ) and perpendicular ( ) components to the magnetic field, remains finite while (i.e., ) in the force-free state. In this study, we set as the single representative scale of the current, and no distinction is made between the parallel and perpendicular components. To obtain the force-free state, only the parallel component should diverge ( ) to keep the parallel current finite in the vacuum limit . Although the force-free model will be reproduced later in Sec. VI, the existence of the “extended” force-free model is nontrivial and will be the subject of future work.
The interaction between plasma motion and electromagnetic field is most active in the situation . Therefore, the Alfvén ordering is conventionally employed in (non-relativistic) MHD focusing on only this situation, which is admissible as far as . It is also interesting to note that the scale of is similar to .
B. Single-fluid limit
C. Nonrelativistic limit
Equation (80) is the generalized Ohm's law. Recall that we neglected resistivity and viscosity at the beginning, assuming that they are not dominant. The inclusion of these terms with large Lundquist and Reynolds numbers does not affect the balances we have discussed so far.
Note that the displacement current in Eq. (69) has been neglected and hence is a constraint; we can eliminate nui (or J) using this relation. The generalized Ohm's law (80) is regarded as the evolution equation for Ai, where is determined such that the Coulomb gauge holds. Therefore, the XMHD equations constitute a dynamical system of seven fields with one constraint . Since , the so-called “quasi-neutrality condition” holds as if . In fact, small charge separation exists although it no longer appears explicitly in the XMHD equations. For small , balance 6 ( ) requests α to be further smaller than εm. The charge conservation law is indeed reduced to in the limit .
The electron-inertia effect is manifested by the terms with , which is the second-order of εm. If we neglect only , the Hall MHD (HMHD) equations are reproduced. If we neglect εH too or simply take the limit of , the MHD equations are finally obtained.
D. Relativistic Hall MHD model
Now, we are positioned to search for the other MHD models, which include both the relativistic and two-fluid effects. To derive a reduced model, we still need to assume the smallness of εm but should not neglect it completely. An approximation that comes to mind immediately is to neglect , namely, the electron-inertia effect only. The resultant equations deserve to be called relativistic Hall MHD (RHMHD). It is remarkable that f in Eq. (73) includes no additional term due to the Hall effect, or . By neglecting , the proper charge neutrality still holds approximately and vanishes.
If we further assume the smallness of additionally, we can also neglect the term of in Ohm's law. Although it is just a minor reduction, let us call it weakly-relativistic Hall MHD (W-RHMHD).
E. Weakly-relativistic XMHD model
V. RANGE OF APPLICATION
Under balances 1–6, there remain three nondimensional parameters , which are related to the three physical scales of plasma (for fixed length scale ). More rigorously speaking, and μ are two additional parameters which appear only in the forms, and . Because of the inequalities and , they do not alter balances 1–6 but possibly make εH and εI further smaller than εm. As the two typical examples, we will consider electron-ion (hydrogen) plasma (for which and ) and electron-positron plasma (for which and ).
In general, it is interesting to note that εm does not originally depend on the density but on the ratio in Eq. (86). When σ gets larger than 1, the two-fluid effect εm gets smaller than ε by the factor . This tendency agrees with Kawazura24 in which the ion skin depth is modified to shrink as the magnetic field strength increases relativistically. In the limit of with fixed and , we find that the two-fluid effect becomes negligible and the use of RMHD is justified (although it tends to be almost vacuum plasma, ).
In the case of electron-positron plasma, the Hall effect vanishes identically, . Then, the XMHD model includes only the electron-inertia effect, which is especially called Inertial MHD (IMHD). Similarly, we can obtain weakly relativistic IMHD from weakly relativistic XMHD when .
Model . | Included order . | Neglected order . |
---|---|---|
MHD | ||
HMHD | ||
IMHD | ||
XMHD | , | |
RMHD | ||
RHMHD | ||
W-RHMHD | ||
W-RIMHD | ||
W-RXMHD |
Model . | Included order . | Neglected order . |
---|---|---|
MHD | ||
HMHD | ||
IMHD | ||
XMHD | , | |
RMHD | ||
RHMHD | ||
W-RHMHD | ||
W-RIMHD | ||
W-RXMHD |
Since it is still difficult to imagine the applicable scope of each model, let us assume as a clear threshold for example. Namely, the non-dimensional parameters (such as σ and εH) can be considered negligible if they are below . Otherwise, they are not neglected. Then, the lines such as and divide the parameter space into subspaces, in which a certain group of MHD models is applicable. Recall that should satisfy and it appears only in Ampère-Maxwell's equation (69). In Table I, the models are classified in terms of σ and εm (regardless of ), which are illustrated in Fig. 2 for electron-ion plasma and in Fig. 3 for electron-positron plasmas. Due to the smallness of mass ratio , the electron-inertia effect is readily neglected ( ) in the majority of cases for electron-ion plasma. However, we have to keep in mind that electron inertia may be important locally at singular point or layer, where the small-scale structure emerges (as in the location where magnetic reconnection occurs).
VI. REMARKS ON RHMHD
In comparison to RMHD, the RHMHD equations just have a few additional terms in Ohm's law due to the Hall effect. However, this difference is quite influential when solving these equations theoretically and numerically.
In general, when a dynamical system for u is solved numerically, the recurrence formula such as is iterated for time marching . To execute this iteration, the right hand side F(u) must be calculated uniquely using the dynamical variable u. This is a fundamental requirement for the well-posedness of the time-evolving system.
We also note that the force-free state can be obtained in the high magnetization limit , where only Eqs. (97) and (101) are solved by neglecting the last term of Eq. (101). Although J is already eliminated from these equations, it must exist at orders and . Our normalization is therefore violated in the parallel component and needs to be modified to treat this model.
Therefore, in the presence of the Hall effect and the cold plasma limit, we can avoid using root-finding algorithm and the time-marching algorithm becomes straightforward while the number of field variables increases from 7 to 10. The cold RHMHD equations are possibly solved at a lower cost than the RMHD equations.
Finally, in the presence of the electron-inertia effect , Ohm's law is regarded as the evolution equation for . The number of field variables is 13 under one constraint , which is essentially the same as the original two-fluid equations. The numbers of field variables and constraints are summarized in Table II. As we have remarked before, it is more natural in XMHD (and IMHD) to solve A instead of B under the constraint . Since cold plasma is assumed in this work for simplicity, one more field variable (such as pressure or temperature) would be added when temperature is not negligible.
Model . | Field variables . | Constraints . |
---|---|---|
MHD | 7 | 1 ( ) |
HMHD | 7 | 1 ( ) |
IMHD | 7 | 1 ( ) |
XMHD | 7 | 1 ( ) |
RMHD | 7 | 1 ( ) |
RHMHD | 10 | 2 ( ) |
W-RHMHD | 10 | 2 ( ) |
W-RIMHD | 13 | 1 ( ) |
W-RXMHD | 13 | 1 ( ) |
Model . | Field variables . | Constraints . |
---|---|---|
MHD | 7 | 1 ( ) |
HMHD | 7 | 1 ( ) |
IMHD | 7 | 1 ( ) |
XMHD | 7 | 1 ( ) |
RMHD | 7 | 1 ( ) |
RHMHD | 10 | 2 ( ) |
W-RHMHD | 10 | 2 ( ) |
W-RIMHD | 13 | 1 ( ) |
W-RXMHD | 13 | 1 ( ) |
VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have investigated the applicability of various MHD models to special relativistic plasmas, using the method of dominant balance in the two-fluid equations. To simplify the formulation and consideration, we have assumed cold plasma (the limit of zero temperature and pressure) because electromagnetic force, not pressure, is a dominant force in the MHD balance. Although there is no problem in including nondominant pressure effect, the case of relativistic pressure should be investigated as a future topic which might also breaks down the MHD balance (or the charge neutrality approximation). Similarly, externally-applied electric field is assumed to be absent because it is rarely dominant.
Under these assumptions, the relativistic two-fluid equations are nondimensionalized by eight representative scales, resulting in seven nondimensional parameters. For the electromagnetic force to be a dominant term, the six balances (1–6) are imposed as constraints among these parameters. Since balances 3 and 4 are inequalities, the number of the nondimensional parameters is reduced to three satisfying an inequality . The parameter is smaller than 1 if we focus on the flow dynamics slower than the cyclotron frequency . The RMHD equations are obtained in the limit . By taking the mass ratio as an additional parameter, this parameter εm appears only through either or in the two-fluid equations. We have shown that the approximation of proper charge neutrality can be justified by neglecting the order of where . When , this approximation naturally corresponds to the quasi-neutrality condition of non-relativistic MHD. All the reduced models, or the generalized MHD models, are derived by neglecting while allowing for the Hall effect , electron-inertia effect and relativistic effects and . A special care is therefore needed when both the electron-inertia and relativistic effects are taken into account simultaneously, because their multiplication is not negligible unless both σ and are much smaller than 1. Only for the weakly relativistic case , we can use the W-RXMHD and W-RIMHD models, where proper charge neutrality is still valid. If is not fulfilled, the two-fluid equations should be solved without any approximation.
The case of is often uninteresting because it is almost vacuum (i.e., the kinetic energy is much smaller than the energy of externally applied magnetic field). In this paper, we set aside the force-free state for simplicity, which allows for only the existence of finite parallel current even in the vacuum limit. On the other hand, the inequality indicates that the maximum velocity scale should be which is understood as relativistic Alfvén ordering ( ). Interesting MHD phenomena are expected in this velocity scale. By focusing on this velocity scale, the number of the nondimensional parameters is further reduced to two which are related to the scales of number density , magnetic field and length . We have illustrated the applicable ranges of the various MHD models in terms of these scales. For a low density case or in a small scale, it is shown that the charge neutrality condition is violated at an intermediate strength of magnetic field around .
We have also summarized the number of field variables for each generalized MHD model. The RHMHD model is shown to be a dynamical system of 10 fields satisfying two constraints ( and ). This number 10 is different from seven of the other non-relativistic MHD models and 13 of the original two-fluid model. Moreover, the cold RHMHD equations describe the time marching of variables and the primitive variables can be written explicitly by them. Since the cold RMHD equations requires the root-finding algorithm to calculate from , the cold RHMHD model has an advantage in that the time-marching algorithm is simpler and less expensive than RMHD at the expense of increasing the field variables from 7 to 10. Naturally, RHMHD is a higher fidelity model than RMHD since it includes the Hall effect, which is known to be important for magnetic reconnection process in electron-ion plasma. The application of RHMHD is therefore expected to be beneficial both theoretically and numerically for analyzing relativistic plasma phenomena.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Y. Kawazura and K. Toma for helpful discussion. This work was supported by JST SPRING (Grant No. JPMJSP2114), a Scholarship of Tohoku University, Division for Interdisciplinary Advanced Research and Education, and IFS Graduate Student Overseas Presentation Award.
AUTHOR DECLARATIONS
Conflict of Interest
The authors have no conflicts to disclose.
Author Contributions
Shuntaro Yoshino: Conceptualization (equal); Formal analysis (lead); Funding acquisition (lead); Investigation (lead); Methodology (equal); Validation (supporting); Visualization (equal); Writing – original draft (lead); Writing – review & editing (supporting). Makoto Hirota: Conceptualization (equal); Formal analysis (supporting); Investigation (supporting); Methodology (equal); Project administration (lead); Supervision (lead); Validation (lead); Writing – review & editing (lead). Yuji Hattori: Project administration (supporting); Supervision (supporting); Writing – review & editing (supporting).
DATA AVAILABILITY
The data that support the findings of this study are available within the article.