7,527 research outputs found
Viscous and Resistive Effects on the MRI with a Net Toroidal Field
Resistivity and viscosity have a significant role in establishing the energy
levels in turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in local
astrophysical disk models. This study uses the Athena code to characterize the
effects of a constant shear viscosity \nu and Ohmic resistivity \eta in
unstratified shearing box simulations with a net toroidal magnetic flux. A
previous study of shearing boxes with zero net magnetic field performed with
the ZEUS code found that turbulence dies out for values of the magnetic Prandtl
number, P_m = \nu/\eta, below P_m \sim 1; for P_m \gtrsim 1, time- and
volume-averaged stress levels increase with P_m. We repeat these experiments
with Athena and obtain consistent results. Next, the influence of viscosity and
resistivity on the toroidal field MRI is investigated both for linear growth
and for fully-developed turbulence. In the linear regime, a sufficiently large
\nu or \eta can prevent MRI growth; P_m itself has little direct influence on
growth from linear perturbations. By applying a range of values for \nu and
\eta to an initial state consisting of fully developed turbulence in the
presence of a background toroidal field, we investigate their effects in the
fully nonlinear system. Here, increased viscosity enhances the turbulence, and
the turbulence decays only if the resistivity is above a critical value;
turbulence can be sustained even when P_m < 1, in contrast to the zero net
field model. While we find preliminary evidence that the stress converges to a
small range of values when \nu and \eta become small enough, the influence of
dissipation terms on MRI-driven turbulence for relatively large \eta and \nu is
significant, independent of field geometry.Comment: Accepted to ApJ; version 2 - minor changes following review; 35 pages
(preprint format), 10 figure
Simulation of granular jet: Is granular flow really a "perfect fluid?"
We perform three-dimensional simulations of a granular jet impact for both
frictional and frictionless grains. Small shear stress observed in the
experiment[X. Cheng et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 188001 (2007) ] is reproduced
through our simulation. However, the fluid state after the impact is far from a
perfect fluid, and thus, similarity between granular jets and quark gluon
plasma is superficial, because the observed viscosity is finite and its value
is consistent with the prediction of the kinetic theory.Comment: 8 pages 11 figures(9 figures: text, 2 figures: supplementary
material) 2 tables. To be published in Phys. Rev.
Resistivity-driven State Changes in Vertically Stratified Accretion Disks
We investigate the effect of shear viscosity and Ohmic resistivity on the
magnetorotational instability (MRI) in vertically stratified accretion disks
through a series of local simulations with the Athena code. First, we use a
series of unstratified simulations to calibrate physical dissipation as a
function of resolution and background field strength; the effect of the
magnetic Prandtl number, Pm = viscosity/resistivity, on the turbulence is
captured by ~32 grid zones per disk scale height, H. In agreement with previous
results, our stratified disk calculations are characterized by a subthermal,
predominately toroidal magnetic field that produces MRI-driven turbulence for
|z| < 2 H. Above |z| = 2 H, magnetic pressure dominates and the field is
buoyantly unstable. Large scale radial and toroidal fields are also generated
near the mid-plane and subsequently rise through the disk. The polarity of this
mean field switches on a roughly 10 orbit period in a process that is
well-modeled by an alpha-omega dynamo. Turbulent stress increases with Pm but
with a shallower dependence compared to unstratified simulations. For
sufficiently large resistivity, on the order of cs H/1000, where cs is the
sound speed, MRI turbulence within 2 H of the mid-plane undergoes periods of
resistive decay followed by regrowth. This regrowth is caused by amplification
of toroidal field via the dynamo. This process results in large amplitude
variability in the stress on 10 to 100 orbital timescales, which may have
relevance for partially ionized disks that are observed to have high and low
accretion states.Comment: very minor changes, accepted to Ap
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