Dead Zone Accretion Flows in Protostellar Disks

Planets form inside protostellar disks in a dead zone where the electrical resistivity of the gas is too high for magnetic forces to drive turbulence. We show that much of the dead zone nevertheless is active and flows toward the star while smooth, large-scale magnetic fields transfer the orbital angular momentum radially outward. Stellar X-ray and radionuclide ionization sustain a weak coupling of the dead zone gas to the magnetic fields, despite the rapid recombination of free charges on dust grains. Net radial magnetic fields are generated in the magneto-rotational turbulence in the electrically conducting top and bottom surface layers of the disk, and reach the midplane by Ohmic diffusion. A toroidal component to the fields is produced near the midplane by the orbital shear. The process is similar to the magnetization of the Solar tachocline. The result is a laminar, magnetically-driven accretion flow in the region where the planets form.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Dust Transport in Protostellar Disks Through Turbulence and Settling

We apply ionization balance and MHD calculations to investigate whether magnetic activity moderated by recombination on dust can account for the mass accretion rates and the mid-infrared spectra and variability of protostellar disks. The MHD calculations use the stratified shearing-box approach and include grain settling and the feedback from the changing dust abundance on the resistivity of the gas. The two-decade spread in accretion rates among T Tauri stars is too large to result solely from variety in the grain size and stellar X-ray luminosity, but can be produced by varying these together with the disk magnetic flux. The diversity in the silicate bands can come from the coupling of grain settling to the distribution of the magneto-rotational turbulence, through three effects: (1) Recombination on grains yields a magnetically inactive dead zone extending above two scale heights, while turbulence in the magnetically active disk atmosphere overshoots the dead zone boundary by only about one scale height. (2) Grains deep in the dead zone oscillate vertically in waves driven by the turbulent layer above, but on average settle at the laminar rates, so the interior of the dead zone is a particle sink and the disk atmosphere becomes dust-depleted. (3) With sufficient depletion, the dead zone is thinner and mixing dredges grains off the midplane. The MHD results also show that the magnetic activity intermittently lifts clouds of dust into the atmosphere. The photosphere height changes by up to one-third over a few orbits, while the extinction along lines of sight grazing the disk surface varies by factors of two over times down to 0.1 orbit. We suggest that the changing shadows cast by the dust clouds on the outer disk are a cause of the daily to monthly mid-infrared variability in some young stars. (Abridged.)Comment: ApJ in pres

Random matrix model at nonzero chemical potentials with anomaly effects

Phase diagram of the chiral random matrix model with U(1)A breaking term is studied with the quark chemical potentials varied independently at zero temperature, by taking the chiral and meson condensates as the order parameters. Although, without the U(1)A breaking term, chiral transition of each flavor can happen separately responding to its chemical potential, the U(1)A breaking terms mix the chiral condensates and correlate the phase transitions. In the three flavor case, we find that there are mixings between the meson and chiral condensates due to the U(1)A anomaly, which makes the meson condensed phase more stable. Increasing the hypercharge chemical potential ($\mu_Y$) with the isospin and quark chemical potentials ($\mu_I$, $\mu_q$) kept small, we observe that the kaon condensed phase becomes the ground state and at the larger $\mu_Y$ the pion condense phase appears unexpectedly, which is caused by the competition between the chiral restoration and the meson condensation. The similar happens when $\mu_Y$ and $\mu_I$ are exchanged, and the kaon condensed phase becomes the ground state at larger $\mu_I$ below the full chiral restoration.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Dynamics of a deformable self-propelled domain

We investigate the dynamical coupling between the motion and the deformation of a single self-propelled domain based on two different model systems in two dimensions. One is represented by the set of ordinary differential equations for the center of gravity and two tensor variables characterizing deformations. The other is an active cell model which has an internal mechanism of motility and is represented by the partial differential equation for deformations. Numerical simulations show a rich variety of dynamics, some of which are common to the two model systems. The origin of the similarity and the difference is discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

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 $R_{\rm MRI} \equiv v_A^2/\nu\Omega$, where $v_A$ is the Alfv{\'e}n velocity, $\nu$ is the kinematic viscosity, and $\Omega$ 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 $R_{\rm MRI}$. 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 $S_{\rm MRI} \equiv v_A^2/\eta\Omega$ for active turbulence depends on the magnetic Prandtl number $S_{{\rm MRI},c} \propto Pm^{1/2}$ in the regime of $Pm \gg 1$ and remains constant when $Pm \ll 1$, where $Pm \equiv S_{\rm MRI}/R_{\rm MRI} = \nu/\eta$ and $\eta$ is the magnetic diffusivity.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ -- 18 pages, 9 figures, 1 tabl

Recombining Plasma & Gamma-ray Emission in the Mixed-morphology Supernova Remnant 3C 400.2

3C 400.2 belongs to the mixed morphology supernova remnant class, showing center-filled X-ray and shell-like radio morphology. We present a study of 3C 400.2 with archival Suzaku and Fermi-LAT observations. We find recombining plasma (RP) in the Suzaku spectra of north-east and south-east regions. The spectra of these regions are well described by two-component thermal plasma models: The hard component is in RP, while the soft component is in collisional ionization equilibrium (CIE) conditions. The RP has enhanced abundances indicating that the X-ray emission has an ejecta origin, while the CIE has solar abundances associated with the interstellar material. The X-ray spectra of north-west and south-west regions are best fitted by a two-component thermal plasma model: an ionizing and a CIE plasma. We have detected GeV gamma-ray emission from 3C 400.2 at the level of $\sim$5$\sigma$ assuming a point-like source model with a power-law (PL) type spectrum. We have also detected a new GeV source at the level of $\sim$13$\sigma$ assuming a Gaussian extension model with a PL type spectrum in the neighborhood of the SNR. We report the analysis results of 3C 400.2 and the new extended gamma-ray source and discuss the nature of gamma-ray emission of 3C 400.2 in the context of existing NANTEN CO data, DRAO HI data, and the Suzaku X-ray analysis results.Comment: Accepted to be published in the Astrophysical Journa

Radial and vertical angular momentum transport in protostellar discs

Angular momentum in protostellar discs can be transported either radially, through turbulence induced by the magnetorotational instability (MRI), or vertically, through the torque exerted by a large-scale magnetic field. We present a model of steady-state discs where these two mechanisms operate at the same radius and derive approximate criteria for their occurrence in an ambipolar diffusion dominated disc. We obtain "weak field'' solutions - which we associate with the MRI channel modes in a stratified disc - and transform them into accretion solutions with predominantly radial angular-momentum transport by implementing a turbulent-stress prescription based on published results of numerical simulations. We also analyze "intermediate field strength'' solutions in which both radial and vertical transport operate at the same radial location. Our results suggest, however, that this overlap is unlikely to occur in real discs.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, aastex.cls. Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc