Vertical Structure and Turbulent Saturation Level in Fully Radiative Protoplanetary Disc Models

Details Vertical Structure and Turbulent Saturation Level in Fully Radiative Protoplanetary Disc Models Vertical Structure and Turbulent Saturation Level in Fully Radiative Protoplanetary Disc Models

2010-07-27

arxiv.org/abs/1007.4747v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

11 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Scientific paper

We investigate a massive ($\varSigma \sim 10000 g cm^{-2}$ at 1 AU) protoplanetary disc model by means of 3D radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulations. The vertical structure of the disc is determined self-consistently by a balance between turbulent heating caused by the MRI and radiative cooling. Concerning the vertical structure, two different regions can be distinguished: A gas-pressure dominated, optically thick midplane region where most of the dissipation takes place, and a magnetically dominated, optically thin corona which is dominated by strong shocks. At the location of the photosphere, the turbulence is supersonic ($M \sim 2$), which is consistent with previous results obtained from the fitting of spectra of YSOs. It is known that the turbulent saturation level in simulations of MRI-induced turbulence does depend on numerical factors such as the numerical resolution and the box size. However, by performing a suite of runs at different resolutions (using up to 64x128x512 grid cells) and with varying box sizes (with up to 16 pressure scaleheights in the vertical direction), we find that both the saturation levels and the heating rates show a clear trend to converge once a sufficient resolution in the vertical direction has been achieved.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Vertical Structure and Turbulent Saturation Level in Fully Radiative Protoplanetary Disc Models does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Vertical Structure and Turbulent Saturation Level in Fully Radiative Protoplanetary Disc Models, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Vertical Structure and Turbulent Saturation Level in Fully Radiative Protoplanetary Disc Models will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-321375