Properties of Strong and Weak Propellers from MHD Simulations

Abstract

We investigate the properties of magnetized stars in the propeller regime using axisymmetric numerical simulations. We modelled the propeller regime for stars with realistically large magnetospheres (5-7 stellar radii), so that our results could be applied to different types of magnetized stars, including Classical T Tauri stars, cataclysmic variables, and accreting millisecond pulsars. A wide range of propeller strengths has been studied, from very strong propellers (where the magnetosphere rotates much more rapidly than the inner disk) to very weak propellers (where the magnetosphere rotates only slightly faster than the inner disc. In both propellers, matter is accumulated at the inner disc for the majority of the time, while episodes of accretion onto the star and ejection into the wind are relatively brief. The efficiency of the propeller, which characterizes the part of inner disk matter flowing into the wind, strongly depends on the fastness parameter omega_s: propeller efficiency increases with omega_s. The properties of the winds are different in strong and weak propellers. In the strong propellers, matter is accelerated rapidly above the escape velocity and flows at a relatively small opening angle of 40-45 degrees. In the weak propellers, matter may flow faster or slower than the escape velocity and at a large opening angle of 60-70 degrees. A star-disk system loses energy and angular momentum. A part of the rotational energy of the star is ejected to the magnetically-dominated (Poynting flux) jet, which is only present in the strong propellers. The other part of the energy flows from the inner disk into a propeller-driven wind. A star spins down partly due to the flow of angular momentum from the star to the corona or to the Poynting flux jet along the open field lines, and partly due to the flow of angular momentum to the inner disk along the closed field lines.