Analytical and computational study of the ideal full two-fluid plasma model and asymptotic approximations for Hall-magnetohydrodynamics

Abstract

The 5-moment two-fluid plasma model uses Euler equations to describe the ion and electron fluids and Maxwell’s equations to describe the electric and magnetic fields. Two-fluid physics becomes significant when the characteristic spatial scales are on the order of the ion skin depth and characteristic time scales are on the order of the ion cyclotron period. The full two-fluid plasma model has disparate characteristic speeds ranging from the ion and electron speeds of sound to the speed of light. Two asymptotic approximations are applied to the full two-fluid plasma to arrive at the Hall-MHD model, namely negligible electron inertia and infinite speed of light. The full two-fluid plasma model and the Hall-MHD model are studied for applications to an electromagnetic plasma shock, geospace environmental modeling (GEM challenge) magnetic reconnection, an axisymmetric Z-pinch, and an axisymmetric field reversed configuration (FRC).