Nonlinear Mixing driven by Internal Gravity Waves

Abstract

Hydrodynamic waves propagate through stellar interiors, transporting energy and angular momentum. They can also advect fluid elements to produce mixing, but this effect has not been quantified from first principles. We derive the leading order non-linear wave mixing due to internal gravity waves in a thermally and compositionally-stratified fluid. We find that this scales as the fourth power of wave velocity, that it is suppressed by compositional stratification, and that it depends on the thermal and compositional diffusivities.