Magnetothermal disk winds in X-ray binaries: poloidal magnetic fields suppress thermal winds

TL;DR

This study uses MHD simulations to show that magnetic fields can suppress thermal winds in X-ray binaries, indicating that successful magnetothermal winds require magnetic launching within the Compton radius.

Contribution

It demonstrates that magnetic fields can inhibit thermal winds in X-ray binaries, challenging previous assumptions about magnetic enhancement of outflows.

Findings

Magnetic fields suppress thermal wind velocities in low plasma beta regions.

Magneto-centrifugal launching is weak in the simulated conditions.

Wind suppression is due to increased flow tube area, not gravitational potential changes.

Abstract

Magnetic, radiation pressure, and thermal driving are the three mechanisms capable of launching accretion disk winds. In X-ray binaries, radiation pressure is often not significant, as in many systems the luminosity is too low for driving due to continuum transitions yet too high for driving due to line transitions. This leaves thermal and magnetic driving as the contender launching mechanisms in these systems. Using Athena++, we perform axisymmetric ideal MHD simulations that include radiative heating and cooling processes appropriate for Compton heated winds to show that the inclusion of magnetic fields into a thermally driven wind has the opposite effect of what one might expect: rather than provide a velocity boost, the thermal wind is suppressed in low plasma beta regions where the field lines are strong enough to reshape the direction of the flow. Our analysis reveals that magneto-centrifugal launching is present but weak, while the reduction in wind velocity is not due to the change in gravitational potential through the magnetically imposed streamline geometry, but rather due to the increased flow tube area just above the surface of the disk, which is less conducive to acceleration. Our results suggest that for magnetothermal wind models to be successful at producing fast dense outflows in low mass X-ray binaries, the winds must be magnetically launched well within the Compton radius.