Magnetorotational Instability in Protoplanetary Disks

Details Magnetorotational Instability in Protoplanetary Disks Magnetorotational Instability in Protoplanetary Disks

Dec 1999

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999sf99.proc..247s&link_type=abstract

Star Formation 1999, Proceedings of Star Formation 1999, held in Nagoya, Japan, June 21 - 25, 1999, Editor: T. Nakamoto, Nobeyam

Physics

Scientific paper

We investigate the regions of protoplanetary disks where magnetorotational instability can be operative in regard to the angular momentum transport. When the ionization fraction is very low, the gas in the disks decouples from magnetic fields and the magnetorotational instability is suppressed. The ionization state of the gas depends on the density distribution and the characters of dust grains in the disks. For various models of protoplanetary disks we investigate the spatial distribution of the abundance of charged particles in the disks. We find that, for all the models, the inner region is magnetorotationally stable due to ohmic dissipation. This makes the accretion onto a central star non-steady. The critical radius, outside of which the disk is unstable, is about 20 AU for the model of the minimum-mass solar nebula. The mass accretion rate near the critical radius is 10-7 - 10-6 Modot yr-1. The stable region shrinks as the column density of the disk decreases. Dust grains in protoplanetary disks may grow by mutual sticking and may sediment toward the midplane of the disks. We find that the stable region shrinks as the radius of dust grains increases or the sedimentation proceeds. Therefore, the magnetorotational instability can occur even in the late evolutionary stages of protoplanetary disks.

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