Vertical Structure of Magnetized Accretion Disks around Young Stars

TL;DR

This paper models the vertical structure of magnetized accretion disks around young stars, analyzing how magnetic fields influence disk properties, heating, and observational signatures across different star types and magnetization levels.

Contribution

It introduces a formalism for the vertical structure of magnetized disks considering various heating mechanisms and applies it to different star types with varying magnetic strengths.

Findings

Strong magnetization causes large deviations from Keplerian rotation.

Resistive heating dominates in FU Ori disks, affecting thermal structure.

Weakly magnetized disks are closer to Keplerian and match observed T Tauri disk aspect ratios.

Abstract

We model the vertical structure of magnetized accretion disks subject to viscous and resistive heating, and irradiation by the central star. We apply our formalism to the radial structure of magnetized accretion disks threaded by a poloidal magnetic field dragged during the process of star formation developed by Shu and coworkers. We consider disks around low mass protostars, T Tauri, and FU Orionis stars. We consider two levels of disk magnetization, $\lambda_{sys} = 4$ (strongly magnetized disks), and $\lambda_{sys} = 12$ (weakly magnetized disks). The rotation rates of strongly magnetized disks have large deviations from Keplerian rotation. In these models, resistive heating dominates the thermal structure for the FU Ori disk. The T Tauri disk is very thin and cold because it is strongly compressed by magnetic pressure; it may be too thin compared with observations. Instead, in the weakly magnetized disks, rotation velocities are close to Keplerian, and resistive heating is always less than 7\% of the viscous heating. In these models, the T Tauri disk has a larger aspect ratio, consistent with that inferred from observations. All the disks have spatially extended hot atmospheres where the irradiation flux is absorbed, although most of the mass ($\sim 90-95$ \%) is in the disk midplane. With the advent of ALMA one expects direct measurements of magnetic fields and their morphology at disk scales. It will then be possible to determine the mass-to-flux ratio of magnetized accretion disks around young stars, an essential parameter for their structure and evolution. Our models contribute to the understanding of the vertical structure and emission of these disks.