SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · astro-ph/0106557

Search for non-helical disc dynamos in simulations

Abstract

The possibility of non-helical large scale dynamo action is investigated using three-dimensional simulations of global accretion discs as well as idealized local simulations without rotation and only shear. Particular emphasis is placed on a certain correlation between vorticity and azimuthal velocity gradient which has been predicted to drive large scale dynamo action, independent of the presence or absence of kinetic helicity. In the global disc simulations two types of behaviours are found: those which do show this type of velocity correlation and those which do not. The former ones are typically also the cases where the resistivity is larger. The latter ones show signs typical of dynamo action based on the usual helicity effect. In the idealized simulations without rotation and just shear the above correlation is found to be particularly strong. In both cases there is, as expected, a systematic flux of magnetic helicity through the midplane. However, very little helicity flux leaves the domain through the top and bottom boundaries. The idealized simulations reveal that much of this systematic flux comes from the rotational component of the helicity flux and does not contribute to its divergence.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

R. Arlt, A. Brandenburg. 2001-06-29. Search for non-helical disc dynamos in simulations. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361%3A20011388

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Scaling of Black Hole Accretion Discs from Gamma-Ray Bursts and Black Hole X-Ray Binaries to Active Galactic Nuclei

I consider how physical processes scale over eight orders of magnitude in black hole mass, from stellar masses in gamma-ray bursts (GRB) and black-hole X-ray binaries (BHXRB) to supermassive active galactic nuclei (AGN). Accretion rates onto stellar mass black holes range over more than sixteen orders of magnitude, from the lower luminosity BHXRB to GRB. These enormous parameter ranges correspond to qualitative as well as quantitative differences in behavior. The fundamental questions involve the balance between nonequilibrium and thermalized plasmas. When energy fluxes exceed a critical value $\sim 10^{29}$ erg/cm$^2$s, as in GRB, a black-body equilibrium pair plasma forms. At the lower fluxes found in AGN, BHXRB and microquasars, accretion power electrodynamically accelerates a small number of very energetic particles, explaining their non-thermal spectra and the high energy gamma-ray emission of blazars. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays may be accelerated by massive black holes, otherwise undetectable, with very low thermal luminosities. New-born fast high-field pulsars may be in the black-body equilibrium regime, resembling SGR in permanent outburst. I also consider the question, significant for the acceleration of nonthermal particles in GRB outflows, of whether collisionless plasmas interpenetrate rather than forming hydrodynamic shocks, and propose this as an alternative to internal shock models of GRB. A new appendix attempts to explain why AGN are, proportionally, more efficient accelerators of energetic particles than stellar mass black holes.

astro-ph

Two 3-Branes in Randall-Sundrum Setup and Current Acceleration of the Universe

Five-dimensional spacetimes of two orbifold 3-branes are studied, by assuming that {\em the two 3-branes are spatially homogeneous, isotropic, and independent of time}, following the so-called "bulk-based" approach. The most general form of the metric is obtained, and the corresponding field equations are divided into three groups, one is valid on each of the two 3-branes, and the third is valid in the bulk. The Einstein tensor on the 3-branes is expressed in terms of the discontinuities of the first-order derivatives of the metric coefficients. Thus, once the metric is known in the bulk, the distribution of the Einstein tensor on the two 3-branes is uniquely determined. As applications, we consider two different cases, one is in which the bulk is locally $AdS_{5}$, and the other is where it is vacuum. In some cases, it is shown that the universe is first decelerating and then accelerating. The global structure of the bulk as well as the 3-branes is also studied, and found that in some cases the solutions may represent the collision of two orbifold 3-branes. The applications of the formulas to the studies of the cyclic universe and the cosmological constant problem are also pointed out.

astro-ph

A Revolution in Science: the Eclipse Expeditions of 1919

The first direct experimental test of Einstein's theory of general relativity involved a pair of expeditions to measure the bending of light at a total solar eclipse that took place one hundred years ago, on 29 May 1919. So famous is this experiment, and so dramatic was the impact on Einstein himself, that history tends not to recognise the controversy that surrounded the results at the time. In this article, I discuss the experiment in its scientific and historical background context and explain why it was, and is, such an important episode in the development of modern physics.

astro-ph