Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T06:59:42.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Magnetic Fields in Accretion Disks*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2013

Marthijn de Kool
Affiliation:
Astrophysical Theory Centre, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Private Bag, Weston Creek, ACT 2611, Australia
Geoffrey V. Bicknell
Affiliation:
Astrophysical Theory Centre, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Private Bag, Weston Creek, ACT 2611, Australia
Zdenka Kuncic
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Box 3055, Victoria, BC V8W 3P6, Canada
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This paper summarises our work on the role of magnetic fields in accretion disks presented in two papers elsewhere. In the first part (a summary of part of Kuncic & Bicknell 1999), we present a formal development of the equations governing the structure of an accretion disk containing magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. The importance of the different terms in the energy and momentum equations is discussed, and a parametrisation of the unresolved processes is suggested that could be used to make further progress. We briefly explore whether an MHD accretion disk can transport a significant part of the gravitational power into a corona by buoyancy. In the second part, we present some exploratory calculations of the vertical structure of accretion disks, in which non-local dissipation of energy due to the buoyant transport of magnetic field energy is taken into account. It is argued that the efficiency of buoyant magnetic transport depends very strongly on the size of the coherent magnetic regions. If the size of the buoyant cells is not very close to the disk thickness, magnetic energy generated by dynamo action inside the disk will be dissipated locally, and will not be available to transport a significant part of the accretion luminosity into a corona.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1999

Footnotes

*

Refereed paper based on two separate contributions to the Workshop on Magnetic Fields and Accretion, held at the Astrophysical Theory Centre, Australian National University, on 12–13 November 1998.

References

Adam, J., et al. 1988, A&A, 183, L1 Google Scholar
Balbus, S. A., & Hawley, J. F. 1991, ApJ, 376, 214 Google Scholar
Canizzo, J. K., & Wheeler, J. C. 1984, ApJS, 40, 1 Google Scholar
de Kool, M., & Wickramasinghe, D. L. 1999, MNRAS, 307, 449 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galeev, A. A., Rosner, R., & Vaiana, G. S. 1979, ApJ, 229, 318 Google Scholar
Haardt, F., & Maraschi, L. 1997, ApJ, 476, 620 Google Scholar
Kuncic, Z., & Bicknell, G. V. 1999, in preparationGoogle Scholar
Matsumoto, R., & Shibata, K. 1992, PASJ, 44, 167 Google Scholar
Meyer, F., & Meyer-Hofmeister, E. 1982, A&A, 106, 34 Google Scholar
Meyer, F., & Meyer-Hofmeister, E. 1994, A&A, 288, 175 Google Scholar
Mineshige, S., & Osaki, Y. 1983, PASJ, 35, 377 Google Scholar
Shakura, N. I., & Sunyaev, R. 1973, A&A, 24, 337 Google Scholar
Shaviv, G., & Wehrse, R. 1986, A&A, 159, L5 Google Scholar
Stone, J. M., et al. 1996, ApJ, 463, 656 Google Scholar
Tout, C. A., & Pringle, J. E. 1992, MNRAS, 259, 604 Google Scholar