Vertical Structure of Stationary Accretion Disks with a Large-Scale Magnetic Field

TL;DR

This paper models the vertical structure of stationary accretion disks with large-scale magnetic fields, analyzing how magnetic and turbulent properties influence disk stability and magnetic field advection.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed vertical profile model of accretion disks considering turbulence suppression at the surface and the relation between magnetic field strength and accretion power distribution.

Findings

Critical plasma-beta value for stationary solutions derived

Magnetic field advection direction depends on plasma-beta

Stationary solutions exist for various magnetic field strengths

Abstract

In earlier works we pointed out that the disk's surface layers are non-turbulent and thus highly conducting (or non-diffusive) because the hydrodynamic and/or magnetorotational (MRI) instabilities are suppressed high in the disk where the magnetic and radiation pressures are larger than the plasma thermal pressure. Here, we calculate the vertical profiles of the {\it stationary} accretion flows (with radial and azimuthal components), and the profiles of the large-scale, magnetic field taking into account the turbulent viscosity and diffusivity and the fact that the turbulence vanishes at the surface of the disk. Also, here we require that the radial accretion speed be zero at the disk's surface and we assume that the ratio of the turbulent viscosity to the turbulent magnetic diffusivity is of order unity. Thus at the disk's surface there are three boundary conditions. As a result, for a fixed dimensionless viscosity $\alpha$-value, we find that there is a definite relation between the ratio ${\cal R}$ of the accretion power going into magnetic disk winds to the viscous power dissipation and the midplane plasma-$\beta$, which is the ratio of the plasma to magnetic pressure in the disk. For a specific disk model with ${\cal R}$ of order unity we find that the critical value required for a stationary solution is $\beta_c \approx 2.4r/(\alpha h)$, where $h$ the disk's half thickness. For weaker magnetic fields, $\beta > \beta_c$, we argue that the poloidal field will advect outward while for $\beta< \beta_c$ it will advect inward. Alternatively, if the disk wind is negligible (${\cal R} \ll 1$), there are stationary solutions with $\beta \gg \beta_c$.