SIMBAD references

Shock waves play an important role in turbulent astrophysical media by compressing the gas and dissipating the turbulent energy into the thermal energy. Here, we study shocks in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence using high-resolution simulations. Turbulent Mach numbers of M_turb=0.5–7 and initial magnetic fields of plasma beta β₀ = 0.1-10 are considered, targeting turbulences in interstellar and intracluster media. Specifically, we present the statistics of fast and slow shocks, such as the distribution of shock Mach numbers (M_s) and the energy dissipation at shocks, based on refined methodologies for their quantifications. While most shocks form with low M_s, strong shocks follow exponentially decreasing distributions of M_s. More shocks appear for larger M_turb and larger β₀. Fast shock populations dominate over slow shocks if β₀ ≫ 1, but substantial populations of slow shocks develop in the cases of β <= 1, i.e., strong background fields. The shock dissipation of turbulent energy occurs preferentially at fast shocks with M_s <= of a few to several, and the dissipation at strong shocks shows exponentially decreasing functions of M_s. The energy dissipation at shocks, normalized to the energy injection, ε_shock/ε_inj, is estimated to be in the range of ∼0.1-0.5, except for the case of M_turb=0.5 and β₀ = 0.1, where the shock dissipation is negligible. The fraction decreases with M_turb; it is close to ∼0.4-0.6 for M_turb=0.5, while it is ∼0.1-0.25 for M_turb=7. The rest of the turbulent energy is expected to dissipate through the turbulent cascade. Our work will add insights into the interpretations of physical processes in turbulent interstellar and intracluster media.