Thermal conduction in galaxy-cluster plasmas and the divergence of neighboring magnetic field lines in strong magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

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  • 11 March 2003
Abstract
We investigate field-line separation in strong MHD turbulence analytically and with direct numerical simulations. We find that in the static-magnetic-field approximation the thermal conductivity in galaxy clusters is reduced by a factor of about 50 relative to the Spitzer thermal conductivity of a non-magnetized plasma. This value is too small for heat conduction to balance radiative cooling in clusters. We also estimate how the thermal conductivity would be affected by efficient turbulent resistivity and efficient field-line mixing.

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