The baroclinic instability in the context of layered accretion

DOI10.1051/0004-6361/201015568zbMATH Open1260.85062arXiv1011.0497OpenAlexW4296792829WikidataQ68940348 ScholiaQ68940348MaRDI QIDQ4905596FDOQ4905596

Authors: Wladimir Lyra, H. Klahr 

Publication date: 19 February 2013

Published in: Astronomy & Astrophysics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Turbulence and angular momentum transport in accretion disks remains a topic of debate. With the realization that dead zones are robust features of protoplanetary disks, the search for hydrodynamical sources of turbulence continues. A possible source is the baroclinic instability (BI), which has been shown to exist in unmagnetized non-barotropic disks. We present shearing box simulations of baroclinicly unstable, magnetized, 3D disks, in order to assess the interplay between the BI and other instabilities, namely the magneto-rotational instability (MRI) and the magneto-elliptical instability. We find that the vortices generated and sustained by the baroclinic instability in the purely hydrodynamical regime do not survive when magnetic fields are included. The MRI by far supersedes the BI in growth rate and strength at saturation. The resulting turbulence is virtually identical to an MRI-only scenario. We measured the intrinsic vorticity profile of the vortex, finding little radial variation in the vortex core. Nevertheless, the core is disrupted by an MHD instability, which we identify with the magneto-elliptic instability. This instability has nearly the same range of unstable wavelengths as the MRI, but has higher growth rates. In fact, we identify the MRI as a limiting case of the magneto-elliptic instability, when the vortex aspect ratio tends to infinity (pure shear flow). We conclude that vortex excitation and self-sustenance by the baroclinic instability in protoplanetary disks is viable only in low ionization, i.e., the dead zone. Our results are thus in accordance with the layered accretion paradigm. A baroclinicly unstable dead zone should be characterized by the presence of large-scale vortices whose cores are elliptically unstable, yet sustained by the baroclinic feedback. As magnetic fields destroy the vortices and the MRI outweighs the BI, the active layers are unmodified.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1011.0497

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zbMATH Keywords

hydrodynamicsturbulenceaccretion disksmagnetohydrodynamics (MHD)instabilities

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Galactic and stellar structure (85A15) Hydrodynamic and hydromagnetic problems in astronomy and astrophysics (85A30) Computational methods for problems pertaining to astronomy and astrophysics (85-08)

Cited In (6)

• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Thermodynamic and vortic structures of real Schur flows
• On the connection between the magneto-elliptic and magneto-rotational instabilities
• Trapping solids at the inner edge of the dead zone: 3-D global MHD simulations
• Magnetic shear-driven instability and turbulent mixing in magnetized protostellar disks
• The subcritical baroclinic instability in local accretion disc models

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