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MHD Turbulence in an Accretion Disk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

John F. Hawley
Affiliation:
University of Virginia, PO Box 3818, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA. jh8h@virginia.edu, sb@virginia.edu
Steven A. Balbus
Affiliation:
University of Virginia, PO Box 3818, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA. jh8h@virginia.edu, sb@virginia.edu

Abstract

A long-standing problem in the theory of astrophysical accretion disks has been to determine the nature of the stress that transports orbital angular momentum outward. The discovery of a local MHD instability is strong evidence that transport occurs through turbulent Maxwell and Reynolds stresses. Using numerical simulations, we have demonstrated that a weak seed magnetic field in an accretion disk shear flow is unstable and leads to sustained MHD turbulence at dynamically important levels.

Type
Galactic and Stellar
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1995

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