Developing the 3-Point Correlation Function For the Turbulent Interstellar Medium

• Published in: arXiv.org
• Main Authors: Portillo, Stephen K N, Slepian, Zachary, Burkhart, Blakesley, Kahraman, Sule, Finkbeiner, Douglas P
• Format: Paper Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 01.10.2018
• Subjects: Algorithms; Computational fluid dynamics; Computer simulation; Diagnostic systems; Dust; Fluid flow; Fourier transforms; Interstellar matter; Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence; Multipoles; Physics - Astrophysics of Galaxies; Physics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics; Star & galaxy formation; Star formation; Triangles
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1711.09907

We present the first application of the angle-dependent 3-Point Correlation Function (3PCF) to the density fields magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence simulations intended to model interstellar (ISM) turbulence. Previous work has demonstrated that the angle-averaged bispectrum, the 3PCF's Fourier-space analog, is sensitive to the sonic and Alfvénic Mach numbers of turbulence. Here we show that introducing angular information via multipole moments with respect to the triangle opening angle offers considerable additional discriminatory power on these parameters. We exploit a fast, order \(N_{\rm g} \log N_{\rm g}\) (\(N_{\rm g}\) the number of grid cells used for a Fourier Transform) 3PCF algorithm to study a suite of MHD turbulence simulations with 10 different combinations of sonic and Alfvénic Mach numbers over a range from sub to super-sonic and sub to super-Alfv\'{e}nic. The 3PCF algorithm's speed for the first time enables full quantification of the time-variation of our signal: we study 9 timeslices for each condition, demonstrating that the 3PCF is sufficiently time-stable to be used as an ISM diagnostic. In future, applying this framework to 3-D dust maps will enable better treatment of dust as a cosmological foreground as well as reveal conditions in the ISM that shape star formation.