Order out of Randomness: Self-Organization Processes in Astrophysics

Self-organization is a property of dissipative nonlinear processes that are governed by a global driving force and a local positive feedback mechanism, which creates regular geometric and/or temporal patterns, and decreases the entropy locally, in contrast to random processes. Here we investigate fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Space science reviews 2018-03, Vol.214 (2), p.1-75, Article 55
Main Authors: Aschwanden, Markus J., Scholkmann, Felix, Béthune, William, Schmutz, Werner, Abramenko, Valentina, Cheung, Mark C. M., Müller, Daniel, Benz, Arnold, Chernov, Guennadi, Kritsuk, Alexei G., Scargle, Jeffrey D., Melatos, Andrew, Wagoner, Robert V., Trimble, Virginia, Green, William H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerospace Technology and Astronautics
Astronomical models
Astrophysics
Astrophysics and Astroparticles
Computational fluid dynamics
Computer simulation
Condensation
Cosmology
Differential equations
Differential rotation
Electromagnetic forces
Entropy
Evolution
Formulations
Hopf bifurcation
Instability
Magnetic reconnection
Magnetic resonance
Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
Magnetohydrodynamics
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Planetary physics
Planetology
Plasma (physics)
Positive feedback
Random processes
Randomness
Self organizing systems
Solar physics
Space Exploration and Astronautics
Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics
Stability
Stellar physics
Thermal analysis
Turbulence
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Summary:Self-organization is a property of dissipative nonlinear processes that are governed by a global driving force and a local positive feedback mechanism, which creates regular geometric and/or temporal patterns, and decreases the entropy locally, in contrast to random processes. Here we investigate for the first time a comprehensive number of ( 17 ) self-organization processes that operate in planetary physics, solar physics, stellar physics, galactic physics, and cosmology. Self-organizing systems create spontaneous “ order out of randomness ”, during the evolution from an initially disordered system to an ordered quasi-stationary system, mostly by quasi-periodic limit-cycle dynamics, but also by harmonic (mechanical or gyromagnetic) resonances. The global driving force can be due to gravity, electromagnetic forces, mechanical forces (e.g., rotation or differential rotation), thermal pressure, or acceleration of nonthermal particles, while the positive feedback mechanism is often an instability, such as the magneto-rotational (Balbus-Hawley) instability, the convective (Rayleigh-Bénard) instability, turbulence, vortex attraction, magnetic reconnection, plasma condensation, or a loss-cone instability. Physical models of astrophysical self-organization processes require hydrodynamic, magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD), plasma, or N-body simulations. Analytical formulations of self-organizing systems generally involve coupled differential equations with limit-cycle solutions of the Lotka-Volterra or Hopf-bifurcation type.
ISSN:0038-6308
1572-9672
DOI:10.1007/s11214-018-0489-2