Tipping points in Cattaneo-Christov thermohaline convection.

Abstract

A model is proposed for thermohaline convection when the heat flux satisfies a relaxation time law rather than the classical Fourier one. Here, we adopt the recent law due to Christov. That a Cattaneo-like law would be relevant in thermohaline convection in star evolution was proposed in 1995 by Herrera and Falcón. They do not develop a detailed model which we do here. We find that with the Cattaneo–Christov law, there is a transition curve (depending on the salt concentration) such that for Cattaneo numbers greater than this transition, the nature of convection changes dramatically.