Thermal instability in a weakly ionized plasma

Abstract

We revisit the problem of clump formation due to thermal instabilities in a weakly ionized plasma with the help of a linear perturbation analysis, as discussed by Nejad-Asghar & Ghanbari. In the absence of a magnetic field and ambipolar diffusion the characteristic equation reduces to the thermal instability described by Field. We derive the critical wavelengths, which separate the spatial ranges of stability and instability. Contrary to the original analysis of Nejad-Asghar & Ghanbari, perturbations with a wavelength larger than the critical wavelength destabilize the cloud. Moreover, the instability regime of isentropic perturbations is drastically reduced. Isobaric modes with real values of the critical wavelength appear only if the density dependence of the cooling rate is more pronounced than the temperature dependence. Isentropic modes arise only if the power of the density in the cooling rate is smaller than 1/2, which is not fulfilled for CO cooling. We find that ambipolar diffusion is not a dominating heating process in molecular gas.