Spiral-driven accretion in protoplanetary discs - II Self-similar solutions

TL;DR

This paper develops self-similar solutions to describe how non-linear spiral patterns facilitate angular momentum and mass transport in protoplanetary discs, highlighting the significance of external disturbances like infall.

Contribution

It introduces new self-similar models for spiral-driven accretion in non self-gravitating discs, analyzing shock structures and quantifying angular momentum transport as a function of temperature.

Findings

High alpha values (~0.1) for thick discs with h/r ~ 1/3

Alpha scales as T^{3/2} and (h/r)^3

Spiral angle scales with arctan(r/h)

Abstract

Accretion discs are ubiquitous in the universe and it is a crucial issue to understand how angular momentum and mass are being radially transported in these objects. Here, we study the role played by non-linear spiral patterns within hydrodynamical and non self-gravitating accretion disc assuming that external disturbances such as infall onto the disc may trigger them. To do so, we computed self-similar solutions that describe discs in which a spiral wave propagates. Such solutions present both shocks and critical sonic points that we carefully analyze. For all allowed temperatures and for several spiral shocks, we calculated the wave structure. In particular we inferred the angle of the spiral patern, the stress it exerts on the disc as well as the associated flux of mass and angular momentum as a function of temperature. We quantified the rate of angular momentum transport by means of the dimensionless $\alpha$ parameter. For the thickest disc we considered (corresponding to $h/r$ values of about 1/3), we found values of $\alpha$ as high as $0.1$, and scaling with the temperature $T$ such that $\alpha \propto T^{3/2} \propto (h/r)^3$. The spiral angle scales with the temperature as $\arctan(r/h)$. The existence of these solutions suggests that perturbations occurring at disc outer boundaries, such as for example perturbations due to infall motions, can propagate deep inside the disc and therefore should not be ignored, even when considering small radii.