Negative specific heat in a quasi-2D generalized vorticity model.
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 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.
Andersen
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Mathematical Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th St., Troy, New York, 12180, USA. andert@rpi.edu
Lim
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