Photon Bubbles in Accretion Discs

Details Photon Bubbles in Accretion Discs Photon Bubbles in Accretion Discs

1998-02-17

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9802226v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

7 pages, LaTeX, 1 eps figure, mn.sty, submitted to MNRAS

Scientific paper

10.1046/j.1365-8711.1998.01571.x

We show that radiation dominated accretion discs are likely to suffer from a ``photon bubble'' instability similar to that described by Arons in the context of accretion onto neutron star polar caps. The instability requires a magnetic field for its existence. In an asymptotic regime appropriate to accretion discs, we find that the overstable modes obey the remarkably simple dispersion relation \omega^2 = -i g k F(B,k). Here g is the vertical gravitational acceleration, B the magnetic field, and F is a geometric factor of order unity that depends on the relative orientation of the magnetic field and the wavevector. In the nonlinear outcome it seems likely that the instability will enhance vertical energy transport and thereby change the structure of the innermost parts of relativistic accretion discs.

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