Heterogeneous Flow in Interstellar Medium and Star Formation

Almost all interstellar objects contain inherent inhomogeneity. The inhomogeneity can manifest in many different ways, such as the uneven matter distribution in a molecular cloud, or the tangled magnetic field distribution in a Bok globule. The dynamics of interstellar objects is thus often governed by the interaction between astrophysical flows or shocks such as supernova blast waves with inhomogeneous objects. We categorize such interactions as “heterogeneous flows” in general since many of their behaviors can be attributed to the heterogeneous nature of the underlying objects. At the computational physics group of the University of Rochester, we develop the highly sophisticated numerical tool AstroBEAR to study the physics of heterogeneous flows. One such problem is the heat conduction through interfaces between hot and cold magnetized plasmas. Through simulations, we find a simple mathematical relation for the rate of heat conduction as a function of the initial ratio of ordered to tangled field across the