The influence of magnetic fields on neutrino-dominated accretion disc

We consider the influence of magnetic fields on the model of neutrino-dominated accretion flows (NDAFs) for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) via the assumption that the accretion rate of the disc is totally caused by the torque of the Lorentz force, i.e. the magnetic braking of large-scale magnetic fields and magnetic viscosity of small-scale magnetic fields. We calculate the structure, composition, luminosity of neutrino emission and the Poynting flux, and the rate of mass loss driven by neutrino heating or launched centrifugally by large-scale magnetic fields, based on the physical condition of the magnetized NDAFs. It is shown that the magnetized disc is favourable to interpret the diverse prompt emissions as well as the X-ray flares observed in the early afterglow of GRBs.     

The stability of accretion discs with inflow driven purely by magnetic winds

A model is presented for an accretion disc in which the inflow is driven purely by the angular momentum removed in a centrifugally accelerated magnetic wind. Turbulent discs around compact stars are considered, with the required magnetic field being generated in the disc by a simple dynamo. The turbulent magnetic Prandtl number, N _p, measures the ratio of turbulent viscosity to turbulent magnetic diffusivity. Formally, the hypothetical limit   N _p→ 0  corresponds to the magnetic wind torque dominating the viscous torque, but in practice the inflow is magnetically controlled for   N _p≲ 0.1  .
The suggestion by previous authors that purely magnetic wind-driven discs may be unstable is investigated. A detailed steady solution is found which allows perturbations to the thermal balance and vertical equilibrium to be calculated, and hence the effect of perturbations to the magnetic diffusivity, η, to be assessed. For a standard parametrized form of η, the wind-driven angular momentum balance is found to be linearly unstable. An increase in the inflow rate leads to increased bending of the poloidal magnetic field and an enhanced wind mass loss rate. This increases the angular momentum loss rate which drives further inflow. There is a resultant increase in η, due to the temperature perturbation, but this does not relieve field bending sufficiently to prevent the instability.     

A magnetic scaleheight: the effect of toroidal magnetic fields on the thickness of accretion discs

We consider accreting systems in which the central object interacts, via the agency of its magnetic field, with the disc that surrounds it. The disc is turbulent and, so, has a finite effective conductivity. The field sweeps across the face of the disc, thereby forming a current that is directed radially within the disc. In turn, this disc current creates a toroidal field, where the interaction between the disc current and the toroidal field produces a Lorentz force that compresses the disc. We investigate this compression, which creates a magnetic scaleheight of the disc that can be much smaller than the conventional scaleheight. We derive an analytic expression for the magnetic scaleheight and apply it to fully ionized discs.     

Accretion disc coronae as magnetic reservoirs

Most astrophysical sources powered by accretion on to a black hole, either of stellar mass or supermassive, when observed with hard X-rays show signs of a hot Comptonizing component in the flow, the so-called corona , with observed temperatures and optical depths lying in a narrow range (0.1≲ τ ≲1 and 1×10⁹ K≲ T ≲3×10⁹ K). Here we argue that these facts constitute strong supporting evidence for a magnetically dominated corona. We show that the inferred thermal energy content of the corona, in all black hole systems, is far too low to explain their observed hard X-ray luminosities, unless either the size of the corona is at least of the order of 10³ Schwarzschild radii, or the corona itself is in fact a reservoir , where the energy is mainly stored in the form of a magnetic field generated by a sheared rotator (probably the accretion disc). We briefly outline the main reasons why the former possibility is to be discarded, and the latter preferred.     

Long-term nonlinear behaviour of the magnetorotational instability in a localized model of an accretion disc

For more than a decade, the so-called shearing-box model has been used to study the fundamental local dynamics of accretion discs. This approach has proved to be very useful because it allows high-resolution and long-term studies to be carried out, studies that would not be possible for a global disc.
Localized disc studies have largely focused on examining the rate of enhanced transport of angular momentum, essentially a sum of the Reynolds and Maxwell stresses. The dominant radial–azimuthal component of this stress tensor is, in the classic Shakura–Sunyaev model, expressed as a constant α times the pressure. Previous studies have estimated α based on a modest number of orbital times. Here we use much longer baselines, and perform a cumulative average for α. Great care must be exercised when trying to extract numerical α values from simulations: dissipation scales, computational box aspect ratio, and even numerical algorithms can all affect the result. This study suggests that estimating α becomes more, not less, difficult as computational power increases.     

An analytic model for disc disruption by strong stellar magnetic fields

An analytic model is presented for the inner structure of an accretion disc in the presence of a strong stellar magnetic field. The model is valid inside the radius at which the electron scattering opacity starts to exceed the Kramers opacity. It illustrates how the increasing stellar poloidal field leads to an elevated disc temperature, ultimately causing a breakdown in the vertical equilibrium owing to rapidly increasing radiation pressure which cannot be balanced by the vertical stellar gravity. Viscous instability also occurs. The solution gives an accurate representation of numerical results, and enables useful expressions to be derived for the radius at which the disc is marginally thin and the radius at which viscous instability occurs. The disruption mechanism appears to have general validity for accretion discs around strongly magnetic stars.     

An unconventional accretion disc dynamo

In the light of recent results from numerical simulations of accretion disc MHD turbulence, we revisit the problem of the configuration of large-scale magnetic fields resulting from an α Ω dynamo operating in a thin accretion disc. In particular, we analyse the consequences of the peculiar sign of the α -effect suggested by numerical simulations . We determine the symmetry of the fastest-growing modes in the kinematic dynamo approximation and, in the framework of an ' α -quenched' dynamo model, study the evolution of the magnetic field. We find that the resulting field for this negative polarity of the α -effect generally has dipole symmetry with respect to the disc midplane, although the existence of an equilibrium configuration depends on the properties of the turbulence. The role of magnetic field dragging is discussed and, finally, the presence of an external uniform magnetic field is included to address the issue of magneto centrifugal wind launching from accretion discs.     

An accretion disc model with a magnetic wind and turbulent viscosity

A model is presented for an accretion disc with turbulent viscosity and a magnetically influenced wind. The magnetic field is generated by a dynamo in the disc, involving the turbulence and radial shear. Disc-wind solutions are found for which the wind mass flux is sufficient to play a major part in driving an imposed steady inflow, but small enough for most material to be accreted on to the central object. Constraints arise for the magnetic Reynolds and Prandtl numbers in terms of the turbulent Mach number and vertical length-scale of the disc's horizontal magnetic field. It is shown that the imposition of a stellar boundary condition enhances the wind mass flux in the very inner region of the disc and may result in jet formation.     

Launching of conical winds and axial jets from the disc–magnetosphere boundary: axisymmetric and 3D simulations

We investigate the launching of outflows from the disc–magnetosphere boundary of slowly and rapidly rotating magnetized stars using axisymmetric and exploratory 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations. We find long-lasting outflows in the following cases. (1) In the case of slowly rotating stars , a new type of outflow, a conical wind , is found and studied in simulations. The conical winds appear in cases where the magnetic flux of the star is bunched up by the disc into an X-type configuration. The winds have the shape of a thin conical shell with a half-opening angle  θ∼ 30°–40°  . About 10–30 per cent of the disc matter flows from the inner disc into the conical winds. The conical winds may be responsible for episodic as well as long-lasting outflows in different types of stars. There is also a low-density, higher velocity component (a jet) in the region inside the conical wind. (2) In the case of rapidly rotating stars (the 'propeller regime'), a two-component outflow is observed. One component is similar to the conical winds. A significant fraction of the disc matter may be ejected into the winds. The second component is a high-velocity, low-density magnetically dominated axial jet where matter flows along the opened polar field lines of the star. The jet has a mass flux of about 10 per cent of that of the conical wind, but its energy flux (dominantly magnetic) can be larger than the energy flux of the conical wind. The jet's angular momentum flux (also dominantly magnetic) causes the star to spin down rapidly. Propeller-driven outflows may be responsible for the jets in protostars and for their rapid spin-down. The jet is collimated by the magnetic force while the conical winds are only weakly collimated in the simulation region. Exploratory 3D simulations show that conical winds are axisymmetric about the rotational axis (of the star and the disc), even when the dipole field of the star is significantly misaligned.     

Global structure of self-excited magnetic fields arising from the magnetic shear instability

The global structure of a self-excited magnetic field arising from the magnetic shear instability has been simulated in spherical geometry by a 3D fully non-linear approach. In order to model the structure of an accretion disc we prescribe a rotation profile of the Brandt type which is Keplerian in the outer regions but yields rigid rotation at the inner core. We performed a whole series of runs at different dynamo numbers with an increasing number of modes in spectral space, thereby checking the influence of the numerical resolution in our simulations. Starting from arbitrary small perturbations, the magnetic and kinetic energies grow by several orders of magnitude as soon as a certain azimuthal resolution of at least m =15 was used at a dynamo number of order C =10⁵. Several phases of the transition to turbulence are realized and interpretations are given for the respective effects occurring at each stage. The resulting magnetic field is highly non-axisymmetric and possesses a pronounced inhomogeneous vortex structure of twisted flux tubes. The flow is almost axisymmetric but shows a Kolmogorov-like behaviour for small scales. The outer surface of the shell is penetrated by magnetic field lines in spot-like regions, which are located mainly in the equatorial plane. For very high dynamo numbers we find a cyclic behaviour of the averaged magnetic field amplitude. The problem of angular momentum transport is discussed in terms of the ShakuraSunyaev viscosity alpha , which depends exponentially on the radial distance and adopts values in the range 10³10⁵.     

Magnetic field dragging and the vertical structure of thin accretion discs

The presence of an imposed vertical magnetic field may drastically influence the structure of thin accretion discs. If the field is sufficiently strong, the rotation law can depart from the Keplerian one. We consider the structure of a disc for a given eddy magnetic diffusivity but neglect details of the energy transport. The magnetic field is assumed to be in balance with the internal energy of the accretion flow. The thickness of the disc as well as the turbulent magnetic Prandtl number and the viscosity, α , are the key parameters of our model. The calculations show that the radial velocity can reach the sound speed for a magnetic disc if the thickness is comparable to that of a non-magnetic one. This leads to a strong amplification of the accretion rate for a given surface density. The inclination angle of the magnetic field lines can exceed the critical value 30° (required to launch cold jets) even for a relatively small magnetic Prandtl number of order unity. The toroidal magnetic fields induced at the disc surface are smaller than predicted in previous studies.     

Magnetic activity in accretion disc boundary layers

We use three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations to study the structure of the boundary layer between an accretion disc and a non-rotating, unmagnetized star. Under the assumption that cooling is efficient, we obtain a narrow but highly variable transition region in which the radial velocity is only a small fraction of the sound speed. A large fraction of the energy dissipation occurs in high-density gas adjacent to the hydrostatic stellar envelope, and may therefore be reprocessed and largely hidden from view of the observer. As suggested by Pringle , the magnetic field energy in the boundary layer is strongly amplified by shear, and exceeds that in the disc by an order of magnitude. These fields may play a role in generating the magnetic activity, X-ray emission and outflows in disc systems where the accretion rate is high enough to overwhelm the stellar magnetosphere.