arXiv subjects

Ethan T. Vishniac

Publications and source records attributed to Ethan T. Vishniac.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv1999

Spectral Transition and Torque Reversal in X-ray Pulsar 4U 1626-67

The accretion-powered, X-ray pulsar 4U 1626-67 has recently shown an abrupt torque reversal accompanied by a dramatic spectral transition and a relatively small luminosity change. The time-averaged X-ray spectrum during spin-down is considerably harder than during spin-up. The observed torque reversal can be explained by an accretion flow transition triggered by a gradual change in the mass accretion rate. The sudden transition to spin-down is caused by a change in the accretion flow rotation from Keplerian to sub-Keplerian. 4U 1626-67 is estimated to be near spin equilibrium with a mass accretion rate Mdot~2x10**16 g/s, Mdot decreasing at a rate ~6x10**14 g/s/yr, and a polar surface magnetic field of ~2b_p**{-1/2} 10^**12G where b_p is the magnetic pitch. During spin-up, the Keplerian flow remains geometrically thin and cool. During spin-down, the sub-Keplerian flow becomes geometrically thick and hot. Soft photons from near the stellar surface are Compton up-scattered by the hot accretion flow during spin-down while during spin-up such scattering is unlikely due to the small scale-height and low temperature of the flow. This mechanism accounts for the observed spectral hardening and small luminosity change. The scattering occurs in a hot radially falling column of material with a scattering depth ~0.3 and a temperature ~10^9K. The X-ray luminosity at energies >5keV could be a poor indicator of the mass accretion rate. We briefly discuss the possible application of this mechanism to GX 1+4, although there are indications that this system is significantly different from other torque-reversal systems.

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arXiv1998

Galactic and Accretion Disk Dynamos

Dynamos in astrophysical disks are usually explained in terms of the standard alpha-omega mean field dynamo model where the local helicity generates a radial field component from an azimuthal field. The subsequent shearing of the radial field gives rise to exponentially growing dynamo modes. There are several problems with this model. The exponentiation time for the galactic dynamo is hard to calculate, but is probably uncomfortably long. Moreover, numerical simulations of magnetic fields in shearing flows indicate that the presence of a dynamo does not depend on a non-zero average helicity. However, these difficulties can be overcome by including a fluctuating helicity driven by hydrodynamic or magnetic instabilities. Unlike traditional disk dynamo models, this `incoherent' dynamo does not depend on the presence of systematic fluid helicity or any kind of vertical symmetry breaking. It will depend on geometry, in the sense that the dynamo growth rate becomes smaller for very thin disks, in agreement with constraints taken from the study of X-ray novae. In this picture the galactic dynamo will operate efficiently, but the resulting field will have a radial coherence length which is a fraction of the galactic radius.

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arXiv1998

Reconnection via the Tearing Instability

We discuss the role of tearing instabilities in magnetic reconnection. In three dimensions this instability leads to the formation of strong Alfvenic waves that remove plasma efficiently from the reconnection layer. As a result the instability proceeds at high rates while staying close to the linear regime. Our calculations show that for a resistive fluid the reconnection speed scales as the product of the Alfven speed V_A over the magnetic Reynolds number to the power -0.3. In the limit of vanishing resistivity, tearing modes proceed at a non-zero rate, driven by the electron inertia term, giving rise to a reconnection speed V_A (c/ω_p L_x)^{3/5}, where ω_p is the plasma frequency and L_x is the transverse scale of the reconnection layer. Formally this solves the problem of fast reconnection, but in practice this reconnection speed is small.

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arXiv1998

Disk Instabilities and Cooling Fronts

Accretion disk outbursts, and their subsequent decline, offer a unique opportunity to constrain the physics of angular momentum transport in hot accretion disks. Recent work has centered on the claim by Cannizzo et al. that the exponential decay of luminosity following an outburst in black hole accretion disk systems is only consistent with a particular form for the dimensionless viscosity, $α=35(c_s/rΩ)^{3/2}$. This result can be understood in terms of a simple model of the evolution of cooling fronts in accretion disks. In particular, the cooling front speed during decline is $\sim α_F c_{s,F}(c_{s,F}/rΩ)^{n}$, where $F$ denotes the position of the cooling front, and the exact value of $n$ depends on the hot state opacity, (although generally $n\approx 1/2$). Setting this speed proportional to $r$ constrains the functional form of $α$ in the hot phase of the disk, which sets it apart from previous arguments based on the relative durations of outburst and quiescence. However, it remains uncertain how well we know the exponent $n$. In addition, more work is needed to clarify the role of irradiation in these systems and its effect on the cooling front evolution.

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arXiv1997

Reconnection in the ISM

We discuss the role of ambipolar diffusion for simple reconnection in a partially ionized gas, following the reconnection geometry of Parker and Sweet. When the recombination time is short the mobility and reconnection of the magnetic field is substantially enhanced as matter escapes from the reconnection region via ambipolar diffusion. Our analysis shows that in the interstellar medium it is the recombination rate that usually limits the rate of reconnection. We show that heating effects can reduce this rate by increasing the recombination time and raising the local ion pressure. In the colder parts of the ISM, when temperatures are or the order of 100K or less, we obtain a significant enhancement over the usual Sweet-Parker rate, but only in dense molecular clouds will the reconnection velocity exceed 0.001 times the Alfvén speed. The ratio of the ion orbital radius to the reconnection layer thickness is typically a few percent, except in dense molecular clouds where it can approach unity. We briefly discuss prospects for obtaining much faster reconnection speeds in astrophysical plasmas.

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arXiv1997

Torque Reversal in Accretion-Powered X-ray Pulsars

Accretion-powered X-ray pulsars 4U 1626-67, GX 1+4, and OAO 1657-415 have recently shown puzzling torque reversals. These reversals are characterized by short time scales, on the order of days, nearly identical spin-up and spin-down rates, and very small changes in X-ray luminosity. We propose that this phenomenon is the result of sudden dynamical changes in the accretion disks triggered by a gradual variation of mass accretion rates. These sudden torque reversals may occur at a critical accretion rate $\sim$ $10^{15}-10^{16}g~s^{-1}$ when the system makes a transition from (to) a primarily Keplerian flow to (from) a substantially sub-Keplerian, radial advective flow in the inner disk. For systems near spin equilibrium, the spin-up torques in the Keplerian state are slightly larger than the spin-down torques in the advective state, in agreement with observation. The abrupt reversals could be a signature of pulsar systems near spin equilibrium with the mass accretion rates modulated on a time scale of a year or longer near the critical accretion rate. It is interesting that cataclysmic variables and black hole soft X-ray transients change their X-ray emission properties at accretion rates similar to the pulsars' critical rate. We speculate that the dynamical change in pulsar systems shares a common physical origin with white dwarf and black hole accretion disk systems.

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arXiv1997

The Structure of Cooling Fronts in Accretion Disks

Recent work has shown that the speed of the cooling front in soft X-ray transients may be an important clue in understanding the nature of accretion disk viscosity. In a previous paper (Vishniac and Wheeler 1996) we derived the scaling law for the cooling front speed. Here we derive a similarity solution for the hot inner part of disks undergoing cooling. This solution is exact in the limit of a thin disk, power law opacities, and a minimum hot state column density which is an infinitesimal fraction of the maximum cold state density. For a disk of finite thickness the largest error is in the ratio of the mass flow across the cooling front to the mass flow at small radii. Comparison to the numerical simulations of Cannizzo et al. (1995) inidcates that the errors in the other parameters do not exceed $(c_{sF}/r_FΩ_F)^q$, that is, the ratio of the sound speed at the disk midplane to its orbital velocity, evaluated at the cooling front, to the qth power. Here $q\approx 1/2$. Its precise value is determined by the relevant hot state opacity law and the functional form of the dimensionless viscosity.

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arXiv1996

Gravitational Instability in Collisionless Cosmological Pancakes

The gravitational instability of cosmological pancakes composed of collisionless dark matter in an Einstein-de Sitter universe is investigated numerically to demonstrate that pancakes are unstable with respect to fragmentation and the formation of filaments. A ``pancake'' is defined here as the nonlinear outcome of the growth of a 1D, sinusoidal, plane-wave, adiabatic density perturbation. We have used high resolution, 2D, N-body simulations by the Particle-Mesh (PM) method to study the response of pancakes to perturbation by either symmetric (density) or antisymmetric (bending or rippling) modes, with corresponding wavevectors k_s and k_a transverse to the wavevector k_p of the unperturbed pancake plane-wave. We consider dark matter which is initially ``cold'' (i.e. with no random thermal velocity in the initial conditions). We also investigate the effect of a finite, random, isotropic, initial velocity dispersion (i.e. initial thermal velocity) on the fate of pancake collapse and instability. Pancakes are shown to be gravitationally unstable with respect to all perturbations of wavelength l<l_p (where l_p= 2pi/k_p). These results are in contradiction with the expectations of an approximate, thin-sheet energy argument.

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arXiv1996

The Variability of Active Galactic Nuclei and the Radial Transport of Vertical Magnetic Flux

We consider the radial buoyancy of vertical magnetic field lines in radiation and gas pressure dominated accretion disks. We find that in addition to radial drift driven by turbulent diffusion and biased by the global field geometry, there are buoyancy effects which tend to move magnetic flux outward. In gas pressure dominated disks the poloidal magnetic field will move outward at a rate comparable to its inward advection. On the other hand, in a radiation pressure dominated disk the poloidal magnetic field will usually move outward faster than it is advected inward. This implies that the fields in disks in active galactic nuclei are generated at small radii by an internal disk dynamo. This conclusion can be avoided if the external field imposes a supersonic Alfvén speed within the disk without giving rise to interchange instabilities. In any case we note that variations in the mass transfer rate will lead directly to a modulation of the nonthermal emission from the disk system.

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arXiv1996

The Speed of Cooling Fronts and the Functional Form of the Dimensionless Viscosity in Accretion Disks

We examine the speed of inward traveling cooling fronts in accretion disks. We show that their speed is determined by the rarefaction wave that precedes them and is approximately $α_F c_{F} (H/r)^q$, where $α_F$ is the dimensionless viscosity, $c_{F}$ is the sound speed, $r$ is the radial coordinate, $H$ is the disk thickness, and all quantities are evaluated at the cooling front. The scaling exponent $q$ lies in the interval $[0,1]$, depending on the slope of the $(T,Σ)$ relation in the hot state. For a Kramer's law opacity and $α\propto (H/r)^n$, where $n$ is of order unity, we find that $q\sim 1/2$. This supports the numerical work of Cannizzo, Chen and Livio (1995) and their conclusion that $n\approx3/2$ is necessary to reproduce the exponential decay of luminosity in black hole X-ray binary systems. Our results are insensitive to the structure of the disk outside of the radius where rapid cooling sets in. In particular, the width of the rapid cooling zone is a consequence of the cooling front speed rather than its cause. We conclude that the exponential luminosity decay of cooling disks is probably compatible with the wave-driven dynamo model. It is not compatible with models with separate, constant values of $α$ for the hot and cold states.

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arXiv1995

An Incoherent $α-Ω$ Dynamo in Accretion Disks

We use the mean-field dynamo equations to show that an incoherent alpha effect in mirror-symmetric turbulence in a shearing flow can generate a large scale, coherent magnetic field. We illustrate this effect with simulations of a few simple systems. In accretion disks, this process can lead to axisymmetric magnetic domains whose radial and vertical dimensions will be comparable to the disk height. This process may be responsible for observations of dynamo activity seen in simulations of dynamo-generated turbulence involving, for example, the Balbus-Hawley instability. In this case the magnetic field strength will saturate at $\sim (h/r)^2$ times the ambient pressure in real accretion disks. The resultant dimensionless viscosity will be of the same order. In numerical simulations the azimuthal extent of the simulated annulus should be substituted for $r$. We compare the predictions of this model to numerical simulations previously reported by Brandenburg et al. (1995). In a radiation pressure dominated environment this estimate for viscosity should be reduced by a factor of $(P_{gas}/P_{radiation})^6$ due to magnetic buoyancy.

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arXiv1995

Global Aspects of Elliptical Instability in Tidally Distorted Accretion Disks

Tidally distorted accretion disks in binary star systems are subject to a local hydrodynamic instability which excites $m=1$ internal waves. This instability is three dimensional and approximately incompressible. We study the global aspects of this local instability using equations derived under the shearing sheet approximation, where the effects of the azimuthal variation along distorted orbital trajectories are included in source terms which oscillate with local orbital phase. Linear analyses show that the excitation of the instability is essentially local, i.e. insensitive to radial boundary conditions. The region of rapid growth feeds waves into the region of slow or negligible growth, allowing the instability to become global. The global growth rate depends the maximum local growth rate, the size of the rapid growth region, and the local group velocity. We present an empirical expression for the global growth rate. We note that the local nature of the instability allows the excitation of waves with $m\ne 1$ when the local growth rate is large.

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arXiv1995

Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence in Accretion Disks

Recent work on the structure of magnetic fields in a turbulent medium gives predictions for the properties of the magnetic flux tubes as a function of the Mach number and scale of the turbulence, and the resistivity and viscosity of the fluid. Here I discuss the implications of this work for accretion disks. I show that although accretion disk flux tubes are usually almost completely evacuated, they are nevertheless less buoyant than previous estimates have suggested. I also note that vertical magnetic flux tends to be ejected from the outer edge of accretion disks, so evidence for continued magnetic activity in such systems should be interpreted as supporting the existence of dynamo activity.

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arXiv1995

The Growth Rate of Tidally Excited Waves in Accretion Disks

Accretion disks in close binary systems are subject to a tidally driven parametric instability which leads to the growth of internal waves near the outer edges of such disks (Goodman 1993). These waves are important in understanding the torque exerted on a disk by tidal forces and may play a role in the structure of the disk at small radii. Here we calculate the growth rate of this instability, including the effects of vertical structure and fluid compressibility. We find growth rates which are only slightly different from Goodman's original results, except that near the vertical resonance radius the growth rate can have an extremely broad and strong peak when the disk is stably stratified in the vertical direction. Higher order modes, in the sense of increasing number of vertical nodes, have similar growth rates. Our results differ from a previous calculation along these lines by Lubow et al. (1993). The difference is mostly due to their neglect of radial gradients in the tidally distorted streamlines.

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arXiv1992

On the Origin of the Galactic Magnetic Field

The galactic magnetic field is commonly supposed to be due to a dynamo acting on some large scale seed field. A major difficulty with this idea is that estimates of reasonable seed field strengths tend to be quite low, on the order of $\sim10^{-20}$ gauss. Here we examine the contribution due to the flux entrained in winds from protostars formed in the first dynamo e-folding time of a galaxy's existence. Using a minimal estimate of a protostellar magnetic field we find that if each protostar ejects a single current ring, sufficient to maintain flux freezing in the wind, than the large scale average dipole field from all such current rings will be at least 5 orders of magnitude larger than previous seed field estimates. Allowing for a reasonable amount of magnetic activity in protostars during an extended period of mass loss increases this to a dipole seed field of $\sim10^{-12}$ gauss. For the purposes of producing a seed field it is irrelevant whether or not this initial injection of flux takes place in a newly formed galactic disk, or in star forming proto-galactic clouds. The compression of this dipole field into a thin disk will lead to a large scale $B_r\sim 10^{-10.5}$ gauss. Initially, field strengths on smaller scales will be larger, but nowhere near current levels.

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