The Turbulent Interstellar Medium: Generalizing to a Scale-dependent Phase Continuum

Abstract

We discuss the likely sources of turbulence in the ISM and explicitly calculate the detailed grand source function for the conventional sources of turbulence from supernovae, superbubbles, stellar winds and HII regions. We find that the turbulent pumping due to the grand source function is broad band, consequently expanding the inertial range of the cascade. We investigate the general properties of the turbulent spectrum using a simple approach based on a spectral transfer equation derived from the hydrodynamic Kovasznay approximation. There are two major findings in this paper: I. The turbulent pressure is calculated from the grand source function II. With the scale dependent energy dissipation from a turbulent cascade the multi-phase medium concept can be generalized to a more natural continuum description where density and temperature are functions of scale. Approximate power-law behavior is seen over a large dynamic range. We discuss some of the implications of models for the ISM, particularly addressing the energy balance of the warm neutral phase.