Write and let be the displacement amplitudes at . Use subscripts for the jet interior and for the adjoining exterior. Each interface is a material vortex sheet, so its linearized kinematic boundary conditions are
The equal mass densities make the hydrostatic displacement terms cancel. The dynamic boundary condition for an inviscid interface therefore gives
The division form assumes ; the preceding undivided equations remain the proper conditions in those exceptional cases. Potentials themselves need not be continuous, and their vertical derivatives need not be equal: the same material displacement is advected by different tangential base velocities. At infinity the exterior potentials decay. These displacement and pressure conditions, rather than continuity of and , determine the equal-density top-hat planar-jet dispersion relation.
Take upwards and write , so that the unperturbed interface is , with carbon dioxide above and water below. Use the sharp-interface, incompressible flow version of Darcy's law, with constant porosity and permeability of a porous medium, no capillary pressure, and effectively unbounded layers. The distinction between Darcy flux and interface speed matters: the base flux is , since the printed is the speed of the interface. Thus the base pressure gradients satisfy
The mass density ordering is stabilizing, whereas injection of the less viscous fluid into the more viscous fluid produces the Saffman–Taylor instability.
For linear stability analysis, displace the interface by . Taking the divergence of Darcy's law shows that the perturbation pressure satisfies the Laplace equation. Decay away from the interface gives, for ,
The kinematic boundary condition and continuity of normal Darcy flux give
Meanwhile pressure continuity, evaluated on the displaced interface, gives
Eliminating yields the buoyancy-modified Darcy fingering dispersion relation:
Every nonzero wavenumber decays when , grows when , and is neutral at equality, where
The zero wavenumber is a uniform displacement and is neutral. Without a short-scale regularization such as surface tension, this model has no fastest-growing finite wavenumber: on the unstable side its growth rate increases without bound as increases. Finite layer depths would change the dispersion relation; none are specified here.
Taking and a year of days, the data give
The numerical paragraph supplies no porosity, so it cannot determine a unique numerical interface speed. If were instead intended to mean Darcy velocity, the numerical critical value would be , and the interface would move at . These two velocity conventions must not be conflated.
Take the layer depth as the length unit, its thermal diffusion time as the time unit, and its imposed temperature difference as the temperature unit. Then is the velocity field, the pressure after the conductive hydrostatic pressure has been subtracted, the departure from the conductive temperature , the upward unit vector, and the Rayleigh number. Here is the dimensional depth, the kinematic viscosity, the thermal diffusivity and the thermal expansion coefficient. The gradient, divergence and Laplacian act on the dimensionless coordinates. The term in the heat equation is advection of the background gradient, since . Mass density variations enter only the buoyancy term under the Boussinesq approximation; the incompressible flow constraint is .
For fixed, impermeable, stress-free plates, the no-penetration boundary condition, stress-free boundary condition and perfectly conducting thermal boundary condition are
For a nonzero horizontal Fourier mode, incompressibility gives , so the velocity conditions are equivalently on both plates. A uniform horizontal velocity is not fixed by these boundary conditions; take its mean to be zero when discussing the stationary forced pattern.
The printed small-Prandtl-number label does not generally justify these equations. In thermal-time units the full momentum equation contains , where the Prandtl number is . Dropping that term gives infinite-Prandtl-number convection or another explicitly justified Stokes flow approximation. It is not the general limit. For example the horizontal shear , , satisfies the full linear momentum equation and the plate conditions, and persists at fixed as . The printed inertia-free equation would instead require this shear to vanish. The following parts solve the equations actually displayed; applying them at small Prandtl number needs an additional slaving or creeping-flow ordering.
The field is a compositional order parameter in a binary fluid mixture. Its spatial integral is conserved in a closed sample, so advection and diffusion enter a continuity equation; the material derivative follows the incompressible fluid. The diffusive current , with positive order-parameter mobility , moves material down the chemical potential gradient. The chemical potential of a composition field is the functional derivative of the symmetric quartic Landau free energy
so . Positive stabilize large amplitudes and penalize sharp interfaces; permits phase separation.
The momentum equation is the Navier-Stokes equation with dynamic viscosity , constant mass density , and the Korteweg force arising from composition stresses. The pressure enforces incompressible flow, , and can absorb pure gradient contributions to that thermodynamic force. For example, gives an equivalent force after redefining the pressure. These equations constitute deterministic Model H dynamics.
Their dissipative signs can be checked by the energy dissipation identity for Model H. Under periodic or no-flux, no-work boundary conditions, composition advection and capillary work cancel between and the kinetic energy, giving
Thus diffusion and viscosity dissipate energy, while the reversible advective coupling transfers it between composition and motion. Thermal noises are omitted at this deterministic hydrodynamic level.
For a power law , restoring dimensions gives
Independence of mass density requires . Hence viscous hydrodynamic coarsening has
At small , the capillary and viscous terms are both of order , while the convective inertial term is of order and the acceleration of the leading linear law is zero. Thus the leading force balance is viscous resistance against capillary driving, giving in the signed convention of the preceding part.
Equivalently, the domain-scale Reynolds number is , so inertia is negligible as . “Small” here refers to time compared with within a late-stage hydrodynamic window: it does not extend the model through the microscopic initial stage, where diffusion or interface formation can dominate. An initial-time offset changes the intercept, not this asymptotic growth exponent.
Use the intended regular scaling ansatz: , and , with , . Relative to the drag magnitude , the two inertial contributions obey
Thus both inertial-to-drag ratios tend to zero at large , whatever the positive growth exponent; for the leading acceleration term vanishes identically. The long-time drag-limited hydrodynamic coarsening balance is therefore
so
The leading law is independent of mass density. Within the drag-capillary reduction, finite initial data give .
The derivative hypotheses are important: bare does not justify differentiating an asymptotic equivalence. For instance, is smooth and increasing, with , but is not small compared with . This is a counterexample to an inference from the bare asymptotic relation, not a solution of the coarsening equation. The physical claim uses the regular self-similar power law, for which the ratio calculation above applies.
This conclusion concerns the model's advective drag-capillary channel. Diffusive Ostwald ripening can also have a growth exponent; equality of exponents does not establish that diffusion is negligible. If it is retained, the prefactor and crossover function may also depend on order-parameter mobility, and one must compare transport mechanisms rather than infer the mechanism from the exponent alone.
Take the current to be dilute, vertically well mixed and Boussinesq approximation, with constant channel width , a horizontal absorbing bed, negligible ambient fluid entrainment, negligible bed friction, and no resuspension. The shallow-water approximation neglects vertical inertia and gives hydrostatic pressure. Particle loss alters reduced gravity but does not alter the leading-order carrier-fluid volume or inertia; otherwise additional mass and momentum terms would be necessary. The current occupies depth , has depth-uniform speed , and has particle volume fraction , with and constant .
Volume conservation of a short channel segment gives . Its suspended particle amount per unit bed area is , and the downward particle deposition flux is . Thus , which becomes on multiplying by .
At vertical coordinate above the bed, excess hydrostatic pressure divided by reference mass density is . Integrating across the depth gives the depth-integrated force flux . The horizontal momentum per unit bed area is and the advected kinematic momentum flux is . The resulting variable-buoyancy shallow water equations are
The derivative of the pressure term acts on both and ; treating reduced gravity as horizontally constant while particles settle would lose part of the force.
For a steady interior, let denote volume flux per unit width. Then the particle balance is a first-order linear differential equation,
Here , is constant, and deposited particles are not returned to the current. In particular the decay length is for , and the cancellation of depth follows from : dilution and transit time compensate in the deposition balance.
The steady momentum equation also gives
The inlet depth selects . Depth and speed at every downstream position are determined by the continuous positive root of a polynomial in
This implicit expression also makes clear why the inlet condition is needed: there are generally two possible positive depths.
The depth branches of a steady depositing gravity current are distinguished by the Froude number . Differentiating the momentum invariant, and using the exponential decay of reduced gravity, gives
For , supercritical flow has and decreasing depth, with and as . Subcritical flow has and increasing depth, with . This indefinitely deepening branch eventually violates the assumed shallow or confined-channel geometry. Hence the depth does not universally decrease: that conclusion needs a supercritical inlet.
For fixed , has its unique minimum at , with . The two positive roots when lie below and above . Since decreases downstream while is constant, an initially strict branch remains separate from the other branch and cannot cross a critical point. A critical inlet with has no finite depth derivative: at the first differentiated equation would equate zero to a positive value. It requires a singular entrance adjustment or physics beyond this steady model. If , both reduced gravity and the continuous depth branch are constant. These steady solutions describe the supplied current interior, not a moving finite-release front.
For two particle populations, write and , allowing different constant particle-density conversion factors. The bidisperse particle-laden gravity current equations are
For the steady case,
Thus the depth is obtained from the same cubic polynomial invariant with the sum of the two exponentially decreasing reduced gravity contributions.
The local deposit consists of the two particle deposition fluxes and . For a positive total deposition rate, the bidisperse gravity-current deposition fraction by particle volume is
If the particles have a common material density, this is also their local mass fraction. If they have common , it can be written in the source's buoyancy notation as
For unequal replace each by . The exponent sign matters: with both populations present and , the faster-settling population has decreasing local deposit fraction downstream, since . Equal positive settling speeds give a constant fraction. A nonsettling population contributes no deposit; if the entire local deposition rate is zero the deposit fraction is undefined.
If “fraction of particles” means number fraction rather than particle-volume or mass fraction, let be a single particle's volume in population . The correct weights are then , so
Settling speeds alone do not determine without particle properties and a drag law. Finally, if the intended deposit is cumulative over the bed from to , rather than local at , integrating particle deposition flux gives the species volumes per unit channel width . The cumulative particle-volume fraction is
For both , its limit at infinity is the incoming particle-volume fraction, whereas its limit as is the local deposition fraction at the inlet. Local sorting and the cumulative inventory are different observables.
The dimensions of the injected power and ambient mass density are and . Requiring to have the dimensions of length gives
Thus dimensional analysis gives the adiabatic superbubble similarity solution
The dimensionless coefficient can depend on and the specified inner structure, but dimensions alone cannot determine it. Constant power differs from a fixed-energy explosion because the energy available at time is proportional to . This scaling assumes that ambient pressure, gravity, radiative losses and the finite injection radius introduce no relevant competing scale.
Set , and . The flattened power-law gravitational potential is . In axisymmetric cylindrical coordinates, the Poisson equation for Newtonian gravity gives
The first derivatives are and . Differentiating again and collecting powers gives
Therefore the required mass density is
This is a formal density for arbitrary , but a physical dark matter distribution must be nonnegative. The density positivity for a flattened power-law potential condition is
Necessity follows by evaluating on the midplane and symmetry axis; sufficiency follows because both numerator coefficients are then nonnegative. In this range the origin is a locally integrable density cusp: the mass enclosed near radius scales as and tends to zero, so no point mass needs adding. The scale-free distribution has infinite total mass at large radius and represents an idealized background, not a finite isolated halo.
For the cold, non-self-gravitating disk, radial balance of a circular orbit is . Thus
The displayed positive root chooses the rotation orientation; the opposite orientation has the negative of this angular frequency.
A mass-radius curve of solar-composition substellar objects must specify age, irradiation and composition. For a mature, weakly irradiated hydrogen–helium sequence, the qualitative mass-radius relation has three main trends:
The conventional deuterium-burning mass near Jupiter masses marks a commonly used giant-planet/brown dwarf classification scale, not a sharp discontinuity in radius or a universal formation boundary. Young brown dwarfs are larger and cool by contraction; irradiation, a heavy-element core and hot-Jupiter radius inflation shift planets away from a single solar-composition curve.
The drawing is a qualitative mature sequence, not an interpolation of a specified evolutionary model grid. Three relevant observations, using representative historical measurements, are:
Gas-giant radius growth gives way to a nearly Jupiter-sized compressed branch, followed by rising radii in hydrogen-burning stars.
A coplanar target sweeps a strip of width through the comet's local position probability. Hence the relevant geometric collision cross-section is a length, and the rare collision rate per comet is .
Using the corrected phase-mixed comet surface density and the notation , , the coplanar comet collision time is
For , this becomes , so at fixed stellar mass and planetary mass density. This is the mean waiting time for one orbiting comet; the mean interval between impacts from such independent comets is . It assumes rare encounters and orbital phase mixing, not a Poisson process derived from a single deterministic trajectory.
At fixed cylindrical radius, let and use the continuity equation . For the similarity solution and , the continuity equation reduces to
Here is dimensionless and labels the initial height. Midplane symmetry sets the integration constant to zero, so the flow is a homologous vertical motion of an astrophysical disk:
The hydrostatic approximation and ideal gas law become
The material derivatives are and , so the energy equation gives
Separation of variables requires a positive constant such that
Integrating with gives the slow cooling of an astrophysical disk similarity factor
A closed set of profile equations is therefore
These have the same polytropic vertical structure in stellar gravity as part (b). Writing
with , fixes
Returning to physical height, the explicit profiles and evolving semi-thickness for are
and
Outside this moving surface . The surface density of a disk is conserved because . The column cools and contracts without changing its scaled profile: its midplane temperature falls as , its mass density rises as and its pressure falls as .
The value determines , but the mass density normalization also enters . If the initial column is specifically the heated equilibrium of part (b), switching off its heating gives
Otherwise , or equivalently the conserved column mass, is additional initial data. The contraction timescale grows with , so sufficiently slow initial evolution remains slow relative to the fixed vertical dynamical timescale of a disk. This is an exact solution of the reduced hydrostatic approximation, rather than the full momentum equation: its omitted vertical acceleration is , with , which remains small and decreases if .
Let denote the fluid pressure perturbation divided by the reference mass density, and let be the buoyancy perturbation. The buoyancy frequency satisfies . Linearization requires small boundary slope , small displacements compared with the vertical scales of the disturbance and background, and advection small compared with the oscillatory acceleration. For a propagating internal gravity wave this includes ; boundary slope alone is insufficient when . The Boussinesq approximation also requires small relative mass density differences over the region of interest. These conditions must hold for the resulting disturbance, including any amplification by resonance.
The inviscid Linearized Boussinesq equations and linear kinematic boundary condition are
Write the velocity field as . Incompressibility and horizontal momentum balance give
The vertical momentum balance therefore yields
For a real vertical wavenumber , this gives the dispersion relation
When , define . The radiation condition selects , because energy must leave the boundary upward. The boundary-forced internal gravity wave is
Its wavevector is , its phase velocity is , and its group velocity is
Thus the phase velocity points down and right, while the group velocity points up and right. They are perpendicular. Internal-wave polarization makes the particle motion an oscillation along the group velocity direction, with zero first-order mean transport. The constant-phase lines of an internal gravity wave are also parallel to the group velocity. Their inclination above the horizontal satisfies .
When , set . Boundedness at infinity selects the evanescent wave
The horizontal and vertical velocity components are in quadrature: fluid particles describe small ellipses, and the response decays over . There is no upward time-averaged energy flux, because and are in quadrature. A real vertical group velocity is not defined for this evanescent wave. The pattern travels horizontally with phase velocity .
For the response is the evanescent wave with ; the ratios should not be used. At the cutoff , the bounded harmonic solution has , : it neither decays nor has nonzero upward group velocity. It is the limiting cutoff response, rather than a localized radiating disturbance. A uniform nonzero buoyancy frequency in an infinitely deep Boussinesq approximation is itself a local idealization of the background mass density.
Figure 1.
Propagating and evanescent responses
.
The arrows distinguish the phase velocity, group velocity, and oscillatory particle motion of the internal gravity wave. The right panel shows the decay envelope and particle ellipses of the evanescent wave.
At the change in buoyancy frequency, continuity of vertical velocity and fluid pressure gives
The background mass density is continuous, so there is no interfacial density jump or separate surface restoring force. Since , these internal-wave transmission across a stratification step conditions are continuity of and . The buoyancy perturbation need not be continuous, because the background density gradient jumps.
Let and . The lower unstratified layer obeys and the upper radiation condition gives
Propagating these matching data downward gives
The kinematic boundary condition at the moving lower boundary therefore gives
The upper vertical-displacement complex amplitude at is
In particular, . The unstratified layer attenuates and phase-shifts the transmitted internal gravity wave. The matching height is in the original PDF; the TeX transcription's is a typo.
Let be the signed mass flux. Momentum conservation gives
Dividing the energy-flux equation by and eliminating yields the pressure-density Hugoniot relation for a perfect gas:
With and , this becomes
Solving for the mass density ratio gives
For a compressive normal shock wave, and ; as , the finite shock compression ratio is .
The transonic accretion in a dipolar flux tube values are
The mass density follows from for the same polytropic equation of state. If is the total loaded area at the surface, mass conservation at the sonic point gives
For two equal polar caps with surface angular radius , , so the total mass accretion rate is
For only one loaded polar cap, divide this expression by two. Expressing the result first in also covers a bundle whose loading angle is defined at another radius. The smooth isothermal limit has , , and .
For a spherical planet, combine the hydrostatic pressure support equation with :
Neglect surface pressure. Since , the hydrostatic lower bound on planetary central pressure is
For a physically usual mass density decreasing outward, the mean interior density exceeds the global mean. Hence , giving the sharper minimum within this class,
Uniform mass density attains the sharper bound; direct integration with gives . Real planets are centrally concentrated through compression and dense cores, so their central pressure is higher.
Using , , , and , the universal bounds are approximately for Earth and for Jupiter. The uniform-density estimates are respectively and , or and megabars. Either comparison gives a Jupiter minimum about 6.4 times the Earth minimum.