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Magnetorotational Instability (magnetorotational + instability)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Physics and Astronomy100%

Selected Abstracts

The fundamental difference between shear alpha viscosity and turbulent magnetorotational stresses

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2008
Martin E. Pessah
ABSTRACT Numerical simulations of turbulent, magnetized, differentially rotating flows driven by the magnetorotational instability (MRI) are often used to calculate the effective values of alpha viscosity that is invoked in analytical models of accretion discs. In this paper, we use various dynamical models of turbulent magnetohydrodynamic stresses, as well as numerical simulations of shearing boxes, to show that angular momentum transport in MRI-driven accretion discs cannot be described by the standard model for shear viscosity. In particular, we demonstrate that turbulent magnetorotational stresses are not linearly proportional to the local shear and vanish identically for angular velocity profiles that increase outwards. [source]

On the angular momentum transport due to vertical convection in accretion discs

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY: LETTERS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2010
Geoffroy Lesur
ABSTRACT The mechanism of angular momentum transport in accretion discs has long been debated. Although the magnetorotational instability appears to be a promising process, poorly ionized regions of accretion discs may not undergo this instability. In this Letter, we revisit the possibility of transporting angular momentum by turbulent thermal convection. Using high-resolution spectral methods, we show that strongly turbulent convection can drive outward angular momentum transport at a rate that is, under certain conditions, compatible with observations of discs. We find, however, that the angular momentum transport is always much weaker than the vertical heat transport. These results indicate that convection might be another way to explain global disc evolution, provided that a sufficiently unstable vertical temperature profile can be maintained. [source]

Influence of Ohmic diffusion on the excitation and dynamics of MRI

ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 1 2010
M.J. Korpi
Abstract In this paper we make an effort to understand the interaction of turbulence generated by the magnetorotational instability (MRI) with turbulence from other sources, such as supernova explosions (SNe) in galactic disks. First we perform a linear stability analysis (LSA) of non-ideal MRI to derive the limiting value of Ohmic diffusion that is needed to inhibit the growth of the instability for different types of rotation laws. With the help of a simple analytical expression derived under first-order smoothing approximation (FOSA), an estimate of the limiting turbulence level and hence the turbulent diffusion needed to damp the MRI is derived. Secondly, we perform numerical simulations in local cubes of isothermal nonstratified gas with external forcing of varying strength to see whether the linear result holds for more complex systems. Purely hydrodynamic calculations with forcing, rotation and shear are made for reference purposes, and as expected, non-zero Reynolds stresses are found. In the magnetohydrodynamic calculations, therefore, the total stresses generated are a sum of the forcing and MRI contributions. To separate these contributions, we perform reference runs with MRI-stable shear profiles (angular velocity increasing outwards), which suggest that the MRI-generated stresses indeed become strongly suppressed as function of the forcing. The Maxwell to Reynolds stress ratio is observed to decrease by an order of magnitude as the turbulence level due to external forcing exceeds the predicted limiting value, which we interpret as a sign of MRI suppression. Finally, we apply these results to estimate the limiting radius inside of which the SN activity can suppress the MRI, arriving at a value of 14 kpc (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]

Turbulent stresses as a function of shear rate in a local disk model

ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 1 2009
A.J. Liljeström
Abstract We present local numerical models of accretion disk turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability with varying shear rate. The resulting turbulent stresses are compared with predictions of a closure model in which triple correlations are modelled in terms of quadratic correlations. This local model uses five nondimensional parameters to describe the properties of the flow. We attempt to determine these closure parameters for our simulations and find that the model does produce qualitatively correct behaviour. In addition, we present results concerning the shear rate dependency of the magnetic to kinetic energy ratio. We find both the turbulent stress ratio and the total stress to be strongly dependent on the shear rate (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]

Results of a modified PROMISE experiment

ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 7 2008
F. Stefani
Abstract The PROMISE experiment relies on the fact that the critical Reynolds number for the appearance of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in liquid metal flows drastically decreases when the purely axial magnetic field is replaced by a helical one. We report the results of a modified version of this experiments in which the radial electrical boundary conditions are changed. Special focus is laid on the role of the radial jet region where the two Ekman vortices from the top and the bottom meet each other. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]