Wind-driven Accretion in Protoplanetary Disks. I: Suppression of the Magnetorotational Instability and Launching of the Magnetocentrifugal Wind

TL;DR

This study uses advanced MHD simulations to show that ambipolar diffusion suppresses turbulence and enables magnetocentrifugal winds in protoplanetary disks, affecting their evolution and planet formation.

Contribution

It demonstrates that ambipolar diffusion suppresses MRI and facilitates wind launching in PPDs, providing a self-consistent model of laminar accretion driven by magnetic winds.

Findings

MRI is suppressed with weak vertical magnetic fields.

Strong magnetocentrifugal winds are launched efficiently.

Accretion occurs through a current layer offset from midplane.

Abstract

We perform local, vertically stratified shearing-box MHD simulations of protoplanetary disks (PPDs) at a fiducial radius of 1 AU that take into account the effects of both Ohmic resistivity and ambipolar diffusion (AD). The magnetic diffusion coefficients are evaluated self-consistently from a look-up table based on equilibrium chemistry. We first show that the inclusion of AD dramatically changes the conventional picture of layered accretion. Without net vertical magnetic field, the system evolves into a toroidal field dominated configuration with extremely weak turbulence in the far-UV ionization layer that is far too inefficient to drive rapid accretion. In the presence of a weak net vertical field (plasma beta~10^5 at midplane), we find that the MRI is completely suppressed, resulting in a fully laminar flow throughout the vertical extent of the disk. A strong magnetocentrifugal wind is launched that efficiently carries away disk angular momentum and easily accounts for the observed accretion rate in PPDs. Moreover, under a physical disk wind geometry, all the accretion flow proceeds through a strong current layer with thickness of ~0.3H that is offset from disk midplane with radial velocity of up to 0.4 times the sound speed. Both Ohmic resistivity and AD are essential for the suppression of the MRI and wind launching. The efficiency of wind transport increases with increasing net vertical magnetic flux and the penetration depth of the FUV ionization. Our laminar wind solution has important implications on planet formation and global evolution of PPDs.