Quasi-Periodic Oscillations from Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability at a Disk-Magnetosphere Interface

Details Quasi-Periodic Oscillations from Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability at a Disk-Magnetosphere Interface Quasi-Periodic Oscillations from Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability at a Disk-Magnetosphere Interface

2003-10-03

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0310081v1

Astrophys.J. 601 (2004) 414-427

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

38 pages, including 8 figures, ApJ in press

Scientific paper

10.1086/380446

We consider the interface between an accretion disk and a magnetosphere surrounding the accreting mass. We argue that such an interface can occur not only with a magnetized neutron star but also sometimes with an unmagnetized neutron star or a black hole. The gas at the magnetospheric interface is generally Rayleigh-Taylor unstable and may also be Kelvin-Helmholtz unstable. Because of these instabilities, modes with low azimuthal wavenumbers m are expected to grow to large amplitude. It is proposed that the resulting nonaxisymmetric structures contribute to the high frequency quasi-periodic oscillations that have been seen in neutron-star and black-hole X-ray binaries. The mode oscillation frequencies are calculated to be approximately equal to m \Omega_m, where \Omega_m is the angular velocity of the accreting gas at the magnetospheric radius. Thus, mode frequencies should often be in the approximate ratio 1:2:3, etc. If the pressure of the gas in the disk is not large, then the m = 1 mode will be stable. In this case, the mode frequencies should be in the approximate ratio 2:3, etc. There is some observational evidence for such simple frequency ratios.

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