On hydromagnetic stresses in accretion disk boundary layers

Martin E. Pessah, Chi Kwan Chan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Detailed calculations of the physical structure of accretion disk boundary layers, and thus their inferred observational properties, rely on the assumption that angular momentum transport is opposite to the radial angular frequency gradient of the disk. The standard model for turbulent shear viscosity satisfies this assumption by construction. However, this behavior is not supported by numerical simulations of turbulent magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) accretion disks, which show that angular momentum transport driven by the magnetorotational instability (MRI) is inefficient in disk regions where, as expected in boundary layers, the angular frequency increases with radius. In order to shed light on physically viable mechanisms for angular momentum transport in this inner disk region, we examine the generation of hydromagnetic stresses and energy density in differentially rotating backgrounds with angular frequencies that increase outward in the shearing-sheet framework. We isolate the modes that are unrelated to the standard MRI and provide analytic solutions for the long-term evolution of the resulting shearing MHDwaves. We show that, although the energy density of these waves can be amplified significantly, their associated stresses oscillate around zero, rendering them an inefficient mechanism to transport significant angular momentum (inward). These findings are consistent with the results obtained in numerical simulations of MHDaccretion disk boundary layers and challenge the standard assumption of efficient angular momentum transport in the inner disk regions. This suggests that the detailed structure of turbulent MHDaccretion disk boundary layers could differ appreciably from those derived within the standard framework of turbulent shear viscosity

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number48
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume751
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - May 20 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • accretion, accretion disks
  • instabilities
  • magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)
  • turbulence

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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