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Magnetorotational instability and dynamo action in gravitoturbulent astrophysical discs

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 نشر من قبل Antoine Riols-Fonclare
 تاريخ النشر 2017
  مجال البحث فيزياء
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Though usually treated in isolation, the magnetorotational and gravitational instabilities (MRI and GI) may coincide at certain radii and evolutionary stages of protoplanetary discs and active galactic nuclei. Their mutual interactions could profoundly influence several important processes, such as accretion variability and outbursts, fragmentation and disc truncation, or large-scale magnetic field production. Direct numerical simulations of both instabilities are computationally challenging and remain relatively unexplored. In this paper, we aim to redress this neglect via a set of 3D vertically stratified shearing-box simulations, combining self-gravity and magnetic fields. We show that gravito-turbulence greatly weakens the zero-net-flux MRI. In the limit of efficient cooling (and thus enhanced GI), the MRI is completely suppressed, and yet strong magnetic fields are sustained by the gravitoturbulence. This turbulent `spiral wave dynamo may have widespread application, especially in galactic discs. Finally, we present preliminary work showing that a strong net-vertical-flux revives the MRI and supports a magnetically dominated state, in which the GI is secondary.



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473 - A. Riols , B. Roux , H. Latter 2020
Gravitational instability (GI) controls the dynamics of young massive protoplanetary discs. Apart from facilitating gas accretion on to the central protostar, it must also impact on the process of planet formation: directly through fragmentation, and indirectly through the turbulent concentration of small solids. To understand the latter process, it is essential to determine the dust dynamics in such a turbulent flow. For that purpose, we conduct a series of 3D shearing box simulations of coupled gas and dust, including the gass self-gravity and scanning a range of Stokes numbers, from 0.001 to ~0.2. First, we show that the vertical settling of dust in the midplane is significantly impeded by gravitoturbulence, with the dust scale-height roughly 0.6 times the gas scale height for centimetre grains. This is a result of the strong vertical diffusion issuing from (a) small-scale inertial-wave turbulence feeding off the GI spiral waves and (b) the larger-scale vertical circulations that naturally accompany the spirals. Second, we show that at R=50 AU concentration events involving sub-metre particles and yielding order 1 dust to gas ratios are rare and last for less than an orbit. Moreover, dust concentration is less efficient in 3D than in 2D simulations. We conclude that GI is not especially prone to the turbulent accumulation of dust grains. Finally, the large dust scale-height measured in simulations could be, in the future, compared with that of edge-on discs seen by ALMA, thus aiding detection and characterisation of GI in real systems.
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