226 research outputs found
The Effect of the Hall Term on the Nonlinear Evolution of the Magnetorotational Instability: II. Saturation Level and Critical Magnetic Reynolds Number
The nonlinear evolution of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in weakly
ionized accretion disks, including the effect of the Hall term and ohmic
dissipation, is investigated using local three-dimensional MHD simulations and
various initial magnetic field geometries. When the magnetic Reynolds number,
Re_M \equiv v_A^2 / \eta \Omega (where v_A is the Alfven speed, \eta the
magnetic diffusivity, and \Omega the angular frequency), is initially larger
than a critical value Re_{M, crit}, the MRI evolves into MHD turbulence in
which angular momentum is transported efficiently by the Maxwell stress. If
Re_M < Re_{M, crit}, however, ohmic dissipation suppresses the MRI, and the
stress is reduced by several orders of magnitude. The critical value is in the
range of 1 - 30 depending on the initial field configuration. The Hall effect
does not modify the critical magnetic Reynolds number by much, but enhances the
saturation level of the Maxwell stress by a factor of a few. We show that the
saturation level of the MRI is characterized by v_{Az}^2 / \eta \Omega, where
v_{Az} is the Alfven speed in the nonlinear regime along the vertical component
of the field. The condition for turbulence and significant transport is given
by v_{Az}^2 / \eta \Omega \gtrsim 1, and this critical value is independent of
the strength and geometry of the magnetic field or the size of the Hall term.
If the magnetic field strength in an accretion disk can be estimated
observationally, and the magnetic Reynolds number v_A^2 / \eta \Omega is larger
than about 30, this would imply the MRI is operating in the disk.Comment: 43 pages, 8 tables, 20 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ,
postscript version also available from
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~sano/publications
Axisymmetric Magnetorotational Instability in Viscous Accretion Disks
Axisymmetric magnetorotational instability (MRI) in viscous accretion disks
is investigated by linear analysis and two-dimensional nonlinear simulations.
The linear growth of the viscous MRI is characterized by the Reynolds number
defined as , where is the Alfv{\'e}n
velocity, is the kinematic viscosity, and is the angular
velocity of the disk. Although the linear growth rate is suppressed
considerably as the Reynolds number decreases, the nonlinear behavior is found
to be almost independent of . At the nonlinear evolutionary stage,
a two-channel flow continues growing and the Maxwell stress increases until the
end of calculations even though the Reynolds number is much smaller than unity.
A large portion of the injected energy to the system is converted to the
magnetic energy. The gain rate of the thermal energy, on the other hand, is
found to be much larger than the viscous heating rate. Nonlinear behavior of
the MRI in the viscous regime and its difference from that in the highly
resistive regime can be explained schematically by using the characteristics of
the linear dispersion relation. Applying our results to the case with both the
viscosity and resistivity, it is anticipated that the critical value of the
Lundquist number for active turbulence
depends on the magnetic Prandtl number in
the regime of and remains constant when , where and is the magnetic diffusivity.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ -- 18 pages, 9 figures, 1 tabl
Dilution Effects in Two-dimensional Quantum Orbital System
We study dilution effects in a Mott insulating state with quantum orbital
degree of freedom, termed the two-dimensional orbital compass model. This is a
quantum and two-dimensional version of the orbital model where the interactions
along different bond directions cause frustration between different orbital
configurations. A long-range correlation of a kind of orbital at each row or
column, termed the directional order, is studied by means of the quantum
Monte-Carlo method. It is shown that decrease of the ordering temperature due
to dilution is much stronger than that in spin models. Quantum effect enhances
the effective dimensionality in the system and makes the directional order
robust against dilution. We discuss an essential mechanism of the dilute
orbital systems.Comment: 5pages, 4 figure
A Local One-Zone Model of MHD Turbulence in Dwarf Nova Disks
The evolution of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) during the
transition from outburst to quiescence in a dwarf nova disk is investigated
using three-dimensional MHD simulations. The shearing box approximation is
adopted for the analysis, so that the efficiency of angular momentum transport
is studied in a small local patch of the disk: this is usually referred as to a
one-zone model. To take account of the low ionization fraction of the disk, the
induction equation includes both ohmic dissipation and the Hall effect. We
induce a transition from outburst to quiescence by an instantaneous decrease of
the temperature. The evolution of the MRI during the transition is found to be
very sensitive to the temperature of the quiescent disk. As long as the
temperature is higher than a critical value of about 2000 K, MHD turbulence and
angular momentum transport is sustained by the MRI. However, MHD turbulence
dies away within an orbital time if the temperature falls below this critical
value. In this case, the stress drops off by more than 2 orders of magnitude,
and is dominated by the Reynolds stress associated with the remnant motions
from the outburst. The critical temperature depends slightly on the distance
from the central star and the local density of the disk.Comment: 20 pages, 2 tables, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
The Effect of the Hall Term on the Nonlinear Evolution of the Magnetorotational Instability: I. Local Axisymmetric Simulations
The effect of the Hall term on the evolution of the magnetorotational
instability (MRI) in weakly ionized accretion disks is investigated using local
axisymmetric simulations. First, we show that the Hall term has important
effects on the MRI when the temperature and density in the disk is below a few
thousand K and between 10^13 and 10^18 cm^{-3} respectively. Such conditions
can occur in the quiescent phase of dwarf nova disks, or in the inner part
(inside 10 - 100 AU) of protoplanetary disks. When the Hall term is important,
the properties of the MRI are dependent on the direction of the magnetic field
with respect to the angular velocity vector \Omega. If the disk is threaded by
a uniform vertical field oriented in the same sense as \Omega, the axisymmetric
evolution of the MRI is an exponentially growing two-channel flow without
saturation. When the field is oppositely directed to \Omega, however, small
scale fluctuations prevent the nonlinear growth of the channel flow and the MRI
evolves into MHD turbulence. These results are anticipated from the
characteristics of the linear dispersion relation. In axisymmetry on a field
with zero-net flux, the evolution of the MRI is independent of the size of the
Hall term relative to the inductive term. The evolution in this case is
determined mostly by the effect of ohmic dissipation.Comment: 31 pages, 3 tables, 12 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ,
postscript version also available from
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~sano/publications
Angular Momentum Transport by MHD Turbulence in Accretion Disks: Gas Pressure Dependence of the Saturation Level of the Magnetorotational Instability
The saturation level of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) is
investigated using three-dimensional MHD simulations. The shearing box
approximation is adopted and the vertical component of gravity is ignored, so
that the evolution of the MRI is followed in a small local part of the disk. We
focus on the dependence of the saturation level of the stress on the gas
pressure, which is a key assumption in the standard alpha disk model. From our
numerical experiments it is found that there is a weak power-law relation
between the saturation level of the Maxwell stress and the gas pressure in the
nonlinear regime; the higher the gas pressure, the larger the stress. Although
the power-law index depends slightly on the initial field geometry, the
relationship between stress and gas pressure is independent of the initial
field strength, and is unaffected by Ohmic dissipation if the magnetic Reynolds
number is at least 10. The relationship is the same in adiabatic calculations,
where pressure increases over time, and nearly-isothermal calculations, where
pressure varies little with time. Our numerical results are qualitatively
consistent with an idea that the saturation level of the MRI is determined by a
balance between the growth of the MRI and the dissipation of the field through
reconnection. The quantitative interpretation of the pressure-stress relation,
however, may require advances in the theoretical understanding of non-steady
magnetic reconnection.Comment: 45 pages, 5 tables, 17 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Oral pathobiont induces systemic inflammation and metabolic changes associated with alteration of gut microbiota.
Periodontitis has been implicated as a risk factor for metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes, atherosclerotic vascular diseases, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Although bacteremias from dental plaque and/or elevated circulating inflammatory cytokines emanating from the inflamed gingiva are suspected mechanisms linking periodontitis and these diseases, direct evidence is lacking. We hypothesize that disturbances of the gut microbiota by swallowed bacteria induce a metabolic endotoxemia leading metabolic disorders. To investigate this hypothesis, changes in the gut microbiota, insulin and glucose intolerance, and levels of tissue inflammation were analysed in mice after oral administration of Porphyromonas gingivalis, a representative periodontopathogens. Pyrosequencing revealed that the population belonging to Bacteroidales was significantly elevated in P. gingivalis-administered mice which coincided with increases in insulin resistance and systemic inflammation. In P. gingivalis-administered mice blood endotoxin levels tended to be higher, whereas gene expression of tight junction proteins in the ileum was significantly decreased. These results provide a new paradigm for the interrelationship between periodontitis and systemic diseases
Formation of the Black Hole in Nova Scorpii
Israelian et al. (1999) showed that the stellar companion of the black-hole
binary Nova Sco is polluted with material ejected in the supernova that
accompanied the formation of the black-hole primary. Here we systematically
investigate the implications of these observations for the black-hole formation
process. Using a variety of supernova models, including both standard as well
as hypernova models (for different helium-star masses, explosion energies, and
explosion geometries) and a simple model for the evolution of the binary and
the pollution of the secondary, we show that most of the observed abundance
anomalies can be explained for a large range of model parameters (apart from
the abundance of Ti). The best models are obtained for He star masses of 10 to
16 Msun, where spherical hypernova models are generally favoured over standard
supernova ones. Aspherical hypernova models also produce acceptable fits,
provided there is extensive lateral mixing. All models require substantial
fallback and that the fallback material either reached the orbit of the
secondary or was mixed efficiently with material that escaped. The black hole
therefore formed in a two-step process, where the initial mass of the collapsed
remnant was increased substantially by matter that fell back after the initial
collapse. This may help to explain the high observed space velocity of Nova Sco
either because of a neutrino-induced kick (if a neutron star was formed first)
or by asymmetric mass ejection in an asymmetric supernova explosion.Comment: 16 pages, 3 Figures, 4 Tables. submitted to Ap
Detection of a Fully-resolved Compton Shoulder of the Iron K-alpha Line in the Chandra X-ray Spectrum of GX 301-2
We report the detection of a fully-resolved, Compton-scattered emission line
in the X-ray spectrum of the massive binary GX 301-2 obtained with the High
Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer onboard the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
The iron K-alpha fluorescence line complex observed in this system consists of
an intense narrow component centered at an energy of E = 6.40 keV and a redward
shoulder that extends down to ~6.24 keV, which corresponds to an energy shift
of a Compton back-scattered iron K-alpha photon. From detailed Monte Carlo
simulations and comparisons with the observed spectra, we are able to directly
constrain the physical properties of the scattering medium, including the
electron temperature and column density, as well as an estimate for the metal
abundance.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ Lette
Light Curve and Spectral Models for the Hypernova SN 1998bw associated with GRB980425
A refined model for the unusual Type Ic supernova 1998bw, discovered as the
optical counterpart of GRB980425, is presented, and synthetic light curves and
spectra are compared with the observations. The first 30 days of the light
curve and the broad line features of the spectra can be reproduced with the
hydrodynamical model of the explosion of a 14 C+O star, the core of a
star with initial mass 40, assuming that the explosion was very
energetic (kinetic energy erg) and that
0.4 of Ni were synthesized. At late times, however, the
observed light curve tail declines more slowly than this energetic model, and
is in better agreement with a less energetic (
erg) one. This shift to a less energetic model may imply that the inner part of
the ejecta has higher density and lower velocities than the spherically
symmetric model with erg, so that -rays
deposit more efficiently. We suggest that an aspherical explosion can produce
such a structure of the ejecta. We also study detailed nucleosynthesis
calculations for hyper-energetic supernova explosions and compare the yields
with those of normal supernovae.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ (12 November 2000
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