https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20134603004
Global 3D MHD Simulations of Waves in Accretion Discs
Department of Astronomy, Cornell
University, Ithaca,
NY
14853
a e-mail: RVL1@cornell.edu
We discuss results of the first global 3D MHD simulations of warp and density waves in accretion disks excited by a rotating star with a misaligned dipole magnetic field. A wide range of cases are considered. We find for example that if the star’s magnetosphere corotates approximately with the inner disk, then a strong one-arm bending wave or warp forms. The warp corotates with the star and has a maximum amplitude (|zw|/r ~ 0.3) between the corotation radius and the radius of the vertical resonance. If the magnetosphere rotates more slowly than the inner disk, then a bending wave is excited at the disk-magnetosphere boundary, but it does not form a large-scale warp. In this case the angular rotation of the disk [Ω(r)] has a maximum as a function of r so that there is an inner region where dΩ/dr > 0. In this region we observe radially trapped density waves in approximate agreement with the theoretical prediction of a Rossby wave instability in this region.
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2013