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

Abstract

We investigate a massive ($\Sigma \sim 10000gc{m}^{-2}$ 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.

11 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (8)

• Accretion disc viscosity: how big is alpha?
• MHD simulations of the magnetorotational instability in a shearing box with zero net flux. II. The effect of transport coefficients
• MHD simulations of the magnetorotational instability in a shearing box with zero net flux. I. The issue of convergence
• Dead Zone Accretion Flows in Protostellar Disks
• Global MHD simulations of stratified and turbulent protoplanetary discs. II. Dust settling
• Simulations of Magnetorotational Turbulence with a Higher-Order Godunov Scheme
• Thermodynamics of an Accretion Disk Annulus with Comparable Radiation and Gas Pressure
• Turbulent protostellar discs

Cited by in corpus (23)

• Local Study of Accretion Disks with a Strong Vertical Magnetic Field: Magnetorotational Instability and Disk Outflow
• Empirical Constraints on Turbulence in Protoplanetary Accretion Disks
• Local outflows from turbulent accretion disks
• Modeling Magnetorotational Turbulence in Protoplanetary Disks with Dead Zones
• Turbulence and Steady Flows in 3D Global Stratified MHD Simulations of Accretion Disks
• Resistivity-driven State Changes in Vertically Stratified Accretion Disks
• 3D Radiation Non-ideal Magnetohydrodynamical Simulations Of The Inner Rim In Protoplanetary Disks
• Radiation Magnetohydrodynamics In Global Simulations Of Protoplanetary Disks
• Heating and Cooling Protostellar Disks
• Temperature Structure in the Inner Regions of Protoplanetary Disks: Inefficient Accretion Heating Controlled by Nonideal Magnetohydrodynamics
• Meridional circulation in turbulent protoplanetary disks
• On the dynamics of planetesimals embedded in turbulent protoplanetary discs with dead zones
• Herbig Stars' Near-Infrared Excess: An Origin in the Protostellar Disk's Magnetically-Supported Atmosphere
• Magnetic Coupling in the Disks Around Young Gas Giant Planets
• Thermodynamics of the dead-zone inner edge in protoplanetary disks
• The CRONOS Code for Astrophysical Magnetohydrodynamics
• Magnetorotational turbulence in stratified shearing boxes with perfect gas equation of state and finite thermal diffusivity
• Global Structure of Magnetorotationally Turbulent Protoplanetary Discs
• On vertical variations of gas flow in protoplanetary disks and their impact on the transport of solids
• The Boundary Layer in compact binaries
• Radiation hydrodynamics including irradiation and adaptive mesh refinement with AZEuS. I. Methods
• Radially Magnetized Protoplanetary Disk: Vertical Profile
• Magnetic Helicities and Dynamo Action in Magneto-rotationally Driven Turbulence