arXiv subjects

Shu-ichiro Inutsuka

Publications and source records attributed to Shu-ichiro Inutsuka.

207 records · Page 12Linked to original sources

arXiv2005

Self-Sustained Ionization and Vanishing Dead Zones in Protoplanetary Disks

We analyze the ionization state of the magnetohydrodynamically turbulent protoplanetary disks and propose a new mechanism of sustaining ionization. First, we show that in the quasi-steady state of turbulence driven by magnetorotational instability in a typical protoplanetary disk with dust grains, the amount of energy dissipation should be sufficient for providing the ionization energy that is required for activating magnetorotational instability. Second, we show that in the disk with dust grains the energetic electrons that compose electric currents in weakly ionized gas can provide collisional ionization, depending on the actual saturation state of magnetorotational turbulence. On the other hand, we show that in the protoplanetary disks with the reduced effect of dust grains, the turbulent motion can homogenize the ionization degree, leading to the activation of magnetorotational instability even in the absence of other ionization processes. The results in this Letter indicate that most of the regions in protoplanetary disks remain magnetically active, and we thus require a change in the theoretical modeling of planet formation.

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arXiv2005

Evaporation and Condensation of HI clouds in thermally bistable interstellar media: semi-analytic description of isobaric dynamics of curved interfaces

We analyze the evaporation and condensation of spherical and cylindrical HI clouds of the cold neutral medium surrounded by the warm neutral medium. Because the interstellar medium including those two phases is well described as a thermally bistable fluid, it is useful to apply pattern formation theories to the dynamics of the interface between the two phases. Assuming isobaric evolution of fluids and a simple cubic form of the heat-loss function, we show the curvature effects of the interface. We find that approximate solutions for spherical clouds are in good agreement with numerically obtained solutions. We extend our analysis to general curved fronts taking into account the curvature effects explicitly. We find that the curvature effects always stabilise curved interfaces under assumptions such as isobaric evolution we adopt in this Letter.

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arXiv2005

Dynamical Expansion of Ionization and Dissociation Front around a Massive Star. I. A Mode of Triggered Star Formation

We analyze the dynamical expansion of the HII region and outer photodissociation region (PDR) around a massive star by solving the UV and FUV radiation transfer and the thermal and chemical processes in a time-dependent hydrodynamics code. We focus on the physical structure of the shell swept up by the shock front (SF) preceding the ionization front (IF). After the IF reaches the initial Stromgren radius, the SF emerges in front of the IF and the geometrically thin shell bounded with the IF and the SF is formed. The gas density inside the shell is about 10-100 times as high as the ambient gas density. Initially the dissociation fronts expands faster than IF and the PDR is formed outside the HII region. Thereafter the IF and SF gradually overtakes the proceeding dissociation fronts (DFs), and eventually DFs are taken in the shell. The chemical composition within the shell is initially atomic, but hydrogen and carbon monoxide molecules are gradually formed. This is partly because the IF and SF overtake DFs and SF enters the molecular region, and partly because the reformation timescales of the molecules become shorter than the dynamical timescale. The gas shell becomes dominated by the molecular gas by the time of gravitational fragmentation, which agrees with some recent observations. A simple estimation of star formation rate in the shell can provide a significant star formation rate in our galaxy.

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arXiv2004

The Field Condition: A New Constraint of Spatial Resolution in Simulations of the nonlinear Development of Thermal Instability

We present the dynamics of a thermally bistable medium using one-dimensional numerical calculations, including cooling, heating, thermal conduction, and physical viscosity.We set up a two-phase medium from a thermally unstable one-phase medium and follow its long-term evolution. To clarify the role of thermal conduction, we compare the results of the two models, with and without thermal conduction. The calculations show that the thermal conduction helps to generate the kinetic energy of translational motions of the clouds. Next, we focus on spatial resolution because we have to resolve the Field length $λ_{\rm F}$, which is the characteristic length scale of the thermal conduction. The results show convergence only when thermal conduction is included and a large enough cell number is used. We find it necessary to maintain a cell size of less than $λ_{\rm F}/3$ to achieve a converged motion in the two-phase medium. We refer to the constraint that $λ_{\rm F}/3$ be resolved as the ``Field condition''. The inclusion of thermal conduction to satisfy the Field condition is crucial to numerical studies of thermal instability (TI) and may be important for studies of the turbulent interstellar two-phase medium: the calculations of TI without thermal conduction may be susceptible to contamination by artificial phenomena that do not converge with increasing resolutions.

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arXiv2003

Angular Momentum Transport by MHD Turbulence in Accretion Disks: Gas Pressure Dependence of the Saturation Level of the Magnetorotational Instability

The saturation level of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) is investigated using three-dimensional MHD simulations. The shearing box approximation is adopted and the vertical component of gravity is ignored, so that the evolution of the MRI is followed in a small local part of the disk. We focus on the dependence of the saturation level of the stress on the gas pressure, which is a key assumption in the standard alpha disk model. From our numerical experiments it is found that there is a weak power-law relation between the saturation level of the Maxwell stress and the gas pressure in the nonlinear regime; the higher the gas pressure, the larger the stress. Although the power-law index depends slightly on the initial field geometry, the relationship between stress and gas pressure is independent of the initial field strength, and is unaffected by Ohmic dissipation if the magnetic Reynolds number is at least 10. The relationship is the same in adiabatic calculations, where pressure increases over time, and nearly-isothermal calculations, where pressure varies little with time. Our numerical results are qualitatively consistent with an idea that the saturation level of the MRI is determined by a balance between the growth of the MRI and the dissipation of the field through reconnection. The quantitative interpretation of the pressure-stress relation, however, may require advances in the theoretical understanding of non-steady magnetic reconnection.

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arXiv2002

Reformulation of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics with Riemann Solver

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics is reformulated in terms of the convolution of the original hydrodynamics equations, and the new evolution equations for the particles are derived. The same evolution equation of motion is also derived using a new action principle. The force acting on each particle is determined by solving the Riemann problem. The use of the Riemann Solver strengthens the method, making it accurate for the study of phenomena with strong shocks. The prescription for the variable smoothing length is shown. These techniques are implemented in strict conservation form. The results of a few test problems are also shown.

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arXiv2001

An Origin of Supersonic Motions in Interstellar Clouds

The propagation of a shock wave into an interstellar medium is investigated by two-dimensional numerical hydrodynamic calculation with cooling, heating and thermal conduction. We present results of the high-resolution two-dimensional calculations to follow the fragmentation due to the thermal instability in a shock-compressed layer. We find that geometrically thin cooling layer behind the shock front fragments into small cloudlets. The cloudlets have supersonic velocity dispersion in the warm neutral medium in which the fragments are embedded as cold condensations. The fragments tend to coalesce and become larger clouds.

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arXiv2001

An Upper Limit on the Mass of a Primordial Star due to the Formation of an HII Region: The Effect of Ionizing Radiation Force

We analytically investigate the formation of an HII region in the accreting envelope of a newborn star. Special care is taken to examine the role of ionizing radiation force. This effect modifies velocity and density distributions and thereby affects the expansion of the HII region. As a result, the upper limit of the stellar mass imposed by the growth of an HII region around a forming star is increased by a larger factor than the previous estimate. In particular, for a star forming out of metal-free gas, this mechanism does not impose a firm upper limit on its mass.

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arXiv2001

Saturation and Thermalization of the Magnetorotational Instability: Recurrent Channel Flows and Reconnections

The nonlinear evolution and the saturation mechanism of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) are investigated using three-dimensional resistive MHD simulations. A local shearing box is used for our numerical analysis and the simulations begin with a purely vertical magnetic field. We find that the magnetic stress in the nonlinear stage of the MRI is strongly fluctuating. The time evolution shows the quasi-periodic recurrence of spike-shape variations typically for a few orbits which correspond to the rapid amplification of the magnetic field by the nonlinear growth of a two-channel solution followed by the decay through magnetic reconnections. The increase rate of the total energy in the shearing box system is analytically related to the volume-averaged torque in the system. We find that at the saturated state this energy gain of the system is balanced with the increase of the thermal energy mostly due to the joule heating. The spike-shape time evolution is a general feature of the nonlinear evolution of the MRI in the disks threaded by vertical fields and can be seen if the effective magnetic Reynolds number is larger than about unity.

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