Linear Two-Dimensional MHD of Accretion Disks: Crystalline structure and Nernst coefficient

TL;DR

This paper models the steady-state two-dimensional MHD structure of accretion disks around highly magnetized neutron stars, revealing crystalline oscillating profiles influenced by a non-zero Nernst coefficient, with implications for disk morphology and accretion dynamics.

Contribution

It extends previous crystalline structure models by incorporating a linearized MHD approach with a non-zero Nernst coefficient, linking electromagnetic effects to disk accretion and morphology.

Findings

Crystalline oscillating profiles in accretion disks are confirmed.

Radial velocity is much lower than sound speed, indicating limited matter infall.

The model suggests steady fluxes favor ring-like disk structures.

Abstract

We analyse the two-dimensional MHD configurations characterising the steady state of the accretion disk on a highly magnetised neutron star. The model we describe has a local character and represents the extension of the crystalline structure outlined in Coppi (2005), dealing with a local model too, when a specific accretion rate is taken into account. We limit our attention to the linearised MHD formulation of the electromagnetic back-reaction characterising the equilibrium, by fixing the structure of the radial, vertical and azimuthal profiles. Since we deal with toroidal currents only, the consistency of the model is ensured by the presence of a small collisional effect, phenomenologically described by a non-zero constant Nernst coefficient (thermal power of the plasma). Such an effect provides a proper balance of the electron force equation via non zero temperature gradients, related directly to the radial and vertical velocity components. We show that the obtained profile has the typical oscillating feature of the crystalline structure, reconciled with the presence of viscosity, associated to the differential rotation of the disk, and with a net accretion rate. In fact, we provide a direct relation between the electromagnetic reaction of the disk and the (no longer zero) increasing of its mass per unit time. The radial accretion component of the velocity results to be few orders of magnitude below the equatorial sound velocity. Its oscillating-like character does not allow a real matter in-fall to the central object (an effect to be searched into non-linear MHD corrections), but it accounts for the out-coming of steady fluxes, favourable to the ring-like morphology of the disk.