Determine whether anisotropic conductive transport yields resolution-independent cooling

Determine whether residual thermal conduction perpendicular to the magnetically structured interface can set the diffusion velocity independently of numerical resolution and thereby produce a converged cooling rate in magnetized turbulent radiative mixing layers, using explicit tests with anisotropic conduction.

Background

The simulations omit explicit conduction, viscosity, and resistivity, so transport across the hot–cold interface is controlled by numerical diffusion. As a result, the MHD cooling rate continues to decline as resolution increases and has not converged.

The authors discuss thermal conduction as one possible route to convergence. Because the magnetic field is preferentially tangent to the interface, the conductivity normal to the cooling layer can be strongly reduced, making the relevant normal Field length small and potentially difficult to resolve. Whether the residual conductive transport is sufficient to establish a resolution-independent diffusion velocity remains unresolved and requires simulations with anisotropic conduction.