The vertical shear instability in protoplanetary discs as an outwardly travelling wave. I. Linear theory

TL;DR

This paper develops a linear theory for the outwardly propagating vertical shear instability in protoplanetary discs, explaining its wave nature, amplification mechanism, and large-scale disc motions, aiding interpretation of numerical simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a quantitative linear wave theory for the VSI, linking wave dynamics to large-scale disc motions and contrasting with nonlinear growth at smaller scales.

Findings

VSI manifests as an outwardly travelling inertial wave.

Wave amplification occurs through a specific physical mechanism.

Large-scale disc motions include corrugation and breathing modes.

Abstract

We revisit the global linear theory of the vertical shear instability (VSI) in protoplanetary discs with an imposed radial temperature gradient. We focus on the regime in which the VSI has the form of a travelling inertial wave that grows in amplitude as it propagates outwards. Building on previous work describing travelling waves in thin astrophysical discs, we develop a quantitative theory of the wave motion, its spatial structure and the physical mechanism by which the wave is amplified. We find that this viewpoint provides a useful description of the large-scale development of the VSI in global numerical simulations, which involves corrugation and breathing motions of the disc. We contrast this behaviour with that of perturbations of smaller scale, in which the VSI grows into a nonlinear regime in place without significant radial propagation.