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Negative specific heat in a quasi‐2D vortex system
Author(s) -
Andersen Timothy D.,
Lim Chjan C.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
pamm
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1617-7061
DOI - 10.1002/pamm.200700778
Subject(s) - vortex , physics , magnetohydrodynamic drive , sign (mathematics) , halo , plane (geometry) , magnetic field , thermal energy , magnetohydrodynamics , thermal , mechanics , instability , specific heat , thermodynamics , condensed matter physics , mathematical analysis , geometry , quantum mechanics , mathematics , galaxy
Negative specific heat is a dramatic phenomenon where processes decrease in temperature when adding energy. It has been observed in gravo‐thermal collapse of globular clusters. We now report finding this phenomenon in bundles of nearly parallel, periodic, single‐sign generalized vortex filaments in the electron magnetohydrodynamic (EMH) model for the unbounded plane under strong magnetic confinement. We derive the specific heat using a steepest descent method and a mean field property. Our derivations show that as temperature increases, the overall size of the system increases exponentially and the energy drops. The implication of negative specific heat is a runaway reaction, resulting in a collapsing inner core surrounded by an expanding halo of filaments. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)