1,373 research outputs found
Boundary Between Stable and Unstable Regimes of Accretion
We investigated the boundary between stable and unstable regimes of accretion
and its dependence on different parameters. Simulations were performed using a
"cubed sphere" code with high grid resolution (244 grid points in the azimuthal
direction), which is twice as high as that used in our earlier studies. We
chose a very low viscosity value, with alpha-parameter alpha=0.02. We observed
from the simulations that the boundary strongly depends on the ratio between
magnetospheric radius r_m (where the magnetic stress in the magnetosphere
matches the matter stress in the disk) and corotation radius r_cor (where the
Keplerian velocity in the disk is equal to the angular velocity of the star).
For a small misalignment angle of the dipole field, Theta=5 degrees, accretion
is unstable if r_cor/r_m>1.35, and is stable otherwise. In cases of a larger
misalignment angle of the dipole, Theta=20 degrees, instability occurs at
slightly larger values, r_cor/r_m>1.41.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, conference proceedings: "Physics at the
Magnetospheric Boundary", Geneva, Switzerland, 25-28 June, 201
Global 3D Simulations of Disc Accretion onto the classical T Tauri Star BP Tauri
The magnetic field of the classical T Tauri star BP Tau can be approximated
as a superposition of dipole and octupole moments with respective strengths of
the polar magnetic fields of 1.2 kG and 1.6 kG (Donati et al. 2008). We adopt
the measured properties of BP Tau and model the disc accretion onto the star.
We observed in simulations that the disc is disrupted by the dipole component
and matter flows towards the star in two funnel streams which form two
accretion spots below the dipole magnetic poles. The octupolar component
becomes dynamically important very close to the star and it redirects the
matter flow to higher latitudes. The spots are meridionally elongated and are
located at higher latitudes, compared with the pure dipole case, where
crescent-shaped, latitudinally elongated spots form at lower latitudes. The
position and shape of the spots are in good agreement with observations. The
disk-magnetosphere interaction leads to the inflation of the field lines and to
the formation of magnetic towers above and below the disk. The magnetic field
of BP Tau is close to the potential only near the star, inside the
magnetospheric surface, where magnetic stress dominates over the matter stress.
A series of simulation runs were performed for different accretion rates. They
show that an accretion rate is lower than obtained in many observations, unless
the disc is truncated close to the star. The torque acting on the star is about
an order of magnitude lower than that which is required for the rotational
equilibrium. We suggest that a star could lose most of its angular momentum at
earlier stages of its evolution.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures, submitted to MNRA
Global 3D Simulations of Disc Accretion onto the classical T Tauri Star V2129 Oph
The magnetic field of the classical T Tauri star V2129 Oph can be modeled
approximately by superposing slightly tilted dipole and octupole moments, with
polar magnetic field strengths of 0.35kG and 1.2kG respectively (Donati et al.
2007). Here we construct a numerical model of V2129 Oph incorporating this
result and simulate accretion onto the star. Simulations show that the disk is
truncated by the dipole component and matter flows towards the star in two
funnel streams. Closer to the star, the flow is redirected by the octupolar
component, with some of the matter flowing towards the high-latitude poles, and
the rest into the octupolar belts. The shape and position of the spots differ
from those in a pure dipole case, where crescent-shaped spots are observed at
the intermediate latitudes. Simulations show that if the disk is truncated at
the distance of 6.2 R_* which is comparable with the co-rotation radius, 6.8
R_*, then the high-latitude polar spots dominate, but the accretion rate
obtained from the simulations is about an order of magnitude lower than the
observed one. The accretion rate matches the observed one if the disk is
disrupted much closer to the star, at 3.4 R_*. However, the octupolar belt
spots strongly dominate. Better match has been obtained in experiments with a
dipole field twice as strong. The torque on the star from the
disk-magnetosphere interaction is small, and the time-scale of spin evolution,
2 x10^7-10^9 years is longer than the 2x10^6 years age of V2129 Oph. The
external magnetic flux of the star is strongly influenced by the disk: the
field lines connecting the disk and the star inflate and form magnetic towers
above and below the disk. The potential (vacuum) approximation is still valid
inside the Alfv\'en (magnetospheric) surface where the magnetic stress
dominates over the matter stress.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures, after major revision, added 3 figures, 2
tables. Accepted to MNRA
Dynamics of relativistic reconnection
The dynamics of the steady-state Sweet--Parker-type reconnection is analyzed
in relativistic regime when energy density in the inflowing region is dominated
by magnetic field. The structure of reconnection layer (its thickness, inflow
and outflow velocities) depends on the ratio of two large dimensionless
parameters of the problem - magnetization parameter (the ratio
of the magnetic to particle energy-densities in the inflowing region) and the
Lundquist number . The inflow velocity may be relativistic (for ) or non-relativistic (for ), while the outflowing plasma
is moving always relativisticly. For extremely magnetized plasmas with , the inflow four-velocity becomes of the order of the \Alfven
four-velocity.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Ap
Variability Profiles of Millisecond X-Ray Pulsars: Results of Pseudo-Newtonian 3D MHD Simulations
We model the variability profiles of millisecond period X-ray pulsars. We
performed three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations of disk accretion
to millisecond period neutron stars with a misaligned magnetic dipole moment,
using the pseudo-Newtonian Paczynski-Wiita potential to model general
relativistic effects. We found that the shapes of the resulting funnel streams
of accreting matter and the hot spots on the surface of the star are quite
similar to those for more slowly rotating stars obtained from earlier
simulations using the Newtonian potential. The funnel streams and hot spots
rotate approximately with the same angular velocity as the star. The spots are
bow-shaped (bar-shaped) for small (large) misalignment angles. We found that
the matter falling on the star has a higher Mach number when we use the
Paczynski-Wiita potential than in the Newtonian case.
Having obtained the surface distribution of the emitted flux, we calculated
the variability curves of the star, taking into account general relativistic,
Doppler and light-travel-time effects. We found that general relativistic
effects decrease the pulse fraction (flatten the light curve), while Doppler
and light-travel-time effects increase it and distort the light curve. We also
found that the light curves from our hot spots are reproduced reasonably well
by spots with a gaussian flux distribution centered at the magnetic poles. We
also calculated the observed image of the star in a few cases, and saw that for
certain orientations, both the antipodal hot spots are simultaneously visible,
as noted by earlier authors.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ; corrected some
typo
Accretion dynamics in the classical T Tauri star V2129 Oph
We analyze the photometric and spectroscopic variability of the classical T
Tauri star V2129 Oph over several rotational cycles to test the dynamical
predictions of magnetospheric accretion models. The photometric variability and
the radial velocity variations in the photospheric lines can be explained by
rotational modulation due to cold spots, while the radial velocity variations
of the He I (5876 \AA) line and the veiling variability are due to hot spot
rotational modulation. The hot and cold spots are located at high latitudes and
about the same phase, but the hot spot is expected to sit at the chromospheric
level, while the cold spot is at the photospheric level. Using the
dipole+octupole magnetic-field configuration previously proposed in the
literature for the system, we compute 3D MHD magnetospheric simulations of the
star-disk system. We use the simulation's density, velocity and scaled
temperature structures as input to a radiative transfer code, from which we
calculate theoretical line profiles at all rotational phases. The theoretical
profiles tend to be narrower than the observed ones, but the qualitative
behavior and the observed rotational modulation of the H\alpha and H\beta
emission lines are well reproduced by the theoretical profiles. The
spectroscopic and photometric variability observed in V2129 Oph support the
general predictions of complex magnetospheric accretion models with
non-axisymmetric, multipolar fields.Comment: Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic
Conductivity, weak ferromagnetism and charge instability in single crystal
The temperature dependence of resistivity, magnetization and electron-spin
resonance of the single crystal were measured in temperature
range of . Magnetization hysteresis in applied magnetic field
up to 0.7 T at , irreversible temperature behavior of
magnetization and resistivity were found . The obtained data were explained in
terms of degenerate tight binding model using random phase approximation. The
contribution of holes in and bands of manganese ions to the
conductivity, optical absorbtion spectra and charge instability in were studied. Charge susceptibility maxima resulted from the competition of
the on-site Coulomb interaction between the holes in different orbitals and
small hybridization of sub-bands were calculated at .Comment: 6 pages, 12 figure
Possible Quasi-Periodic Oscillations from Unstable Accretion: 3D MHD Simulations
We investigate the photometric variability of magnetized stars, particularly
neutron stars, accreting through a magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor-type instability at
the disk-magnetosphere interface, and compare it with the variability during
stable accretion, with the goal of looking for possible quasi-periodic
oscillations. The lightcurves during stable accretion show periodicity at the
star's frequency and sometimes twice that, due to the presence of two funnel
streams that produce antipodal hotspots near the magnetic poles. On the other
hand, lightcurves during unstable accretion through tongues penetrating the
magnetosphere are more chaotic due to the stochastic behaviour of the tongues,
and produce noisier power spectra. However, the power spectra do show some
signs of quasi-periodic variability. Most importantly, the rotation frequency
of the tongues and the resulting hotspots is close to the inner-disk orbital
frequency, except in the most strongly unstable cases. There is therefore a
high probability of observing QPOs at that frequency in longer simulations. In
addition, the lightcurves in the unstable regime show periodicity at the star's
rotation frequency in many of the cases investigated here, again except in the
most strongly unstable cases which lack funnel flows and the resulting
antipodal hotspots. The noisier power spectra result in the fractional rms
amplitudes of the Fourier peaks being smaller.
We also study in detail the effect of the misalignment angle between the
rotation and magnetic axes of the star on the variability, and find that at
misalignment angles , the star's period always appears in the
lightcurves.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures, accepted by MNRAS. v2 comments: significant
revision. v3 comments: after referee report. Rewrote QPO section (4.5). v4
comments: final versio
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