Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Scientific paper
2009-09-02
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
15 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication on Modern Physics Letters A
Scientific paper
We analyse the two-dimensional MHD configurations characterising the steady state of the accretion disk on a highly magnetised neutron star. The model we describe has a local character and represents the extension of the crystalline structure outlined in Coppi (2005), dealing with a local model too, when a specific accretion rate is taken into account. We limit our attention to the linearised MHD formulation of the electromagnetic back-reaction characterising the equilibrium, by fixing the structure of the radial, vertical and azimuthal profiles. Since we deal with toroidal currents only, the consistency of the model is ensured by the presence of a small collisional effect, phenomenologically described by a non-zero constant Nernst coefficient (thermal power of the plasma). Such an effect provides a proper balance of the electron force equation via non zero temperature gradients, related directly to the radial and vertical velocity components. We show that the obtained profile has the typical oscillating feature of the crystalline structure, reconciled with the presence of viscosity, associated to the differential rotation of the disk, and with a net accretion rate. In fact, we provide a direct relation between the electromagnetic reaction of the disk and the (no longer zero) increasing of its mass per unit time. The radial accretion component of the velocity results to be few orders of magnitude below the equatorial sound velocity. Its oscillating-like character does not allow a real matter in-fall to the central object (an effect to be searched into non-linear MHD corrections), but it accounts for the out-coming of steady fluxes, favourable to the ring-like morphology of the disk.
Benini Riccardo
Montani Giovanni
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