Gravito-turbulence in local disk simulations with an adaptive moving mesh

Abstract

Self-gravity plays an important role in the evolution of rotationally supported systems such as protoplanetary disks, accretion disks around black holes, or galactic disks, as it can both feed turbulence or lead to gravitational fragmentation. While such systems can be studied in the shearing box approximation with high local resolution, the large density contrasts that are possible in the case of fragmentation still limit the utility of Eulerian codes with constant spatial resolution. In this paper, we present a novel self-gravity solver for the shearing box based on the TreePM method of the moving-mesh code AREPO. The spatial gravitational resolution is adaptive which is important to make full use of the quasi-Lagrangian hydrodynamical resolution of the code. We apply our new implementation to two- and three-dimensional, self-gravitating disks combined with a simple $\beta$-cooling prescription. For weak cooling we find a steady, gravito-turbulent state, while for strong cooling the formation of fragments is inevitable. To reach convergence for the critical cooling efficiency above which fragmentation occurs, we require a smoothing of the gravitational force in the two dimensional case that mimics the stratification of the three-dimensional simulations. The critical cooling efficiency we find, $\beta \approx 3$, as well as box-averaged quantities characterizing the gravito-turbulent state, agree well with various previous results in the literature. Interestingly, we observe stochastic fragmentation for $\beta >3$, which slightly decreases the cooling efficiency required to observe fragmentation over the lifetime of a protoplanetary disk. The numerical method outlined here appears well suited to study the problem of galactic disks as well as magnetized, self-gravitating disks.

arXiv comment20 pages, 16 figures, accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (43)

• E pur si muove: Galiliean-invariant cosmological hydrodynamical simulations on a moving mesh
• Nonlinear Outcome of Gravitational Instability in Cooling, Gaseous Disks
• Gravitational Instabilities in Circumstellar Disks
• Dynamics of Protoplanetary Disks
• The Arepo public code release
• Simulating cosmic structure formation with the GADGET-4 code
• Improving the convergence properties of the moving-mesh code AREPO
• The SILCC (SImulating the LifeCycle of molecular Clouds) project: I. Chemical evolution of the supernova-driven ISM
• The properties of brown dwarfs and low-mass hydrogen-burning stars formed by disc fragmentation
• Investigating fragmentation conditions in self-gravitating accretion discs
• Three-phase Interstellar medium in Galaxies Resolving Evolution with Star formation and Supernova feedback (TIGRESS): Algorithms, Fiducial model, and Convergence
• A Triple Protostar System Formed via Fragmentation of a Gravitationally Unstable Disk
• Characterising the Gravitational Instability in Cooling Accretion Discs
• Fragmentation of Massive Protostellar Disks
• Type I planetary migration in a self-gravitating disk
• Treating gravity in thin disk simulations
• Non-convergence of the critical cooling timescale for fragmentation of self-gravitating discs
• Giant Planet Formation, Evolution, and Internal Structure
• Transport and Accretion in Planet-Forming Disks
• Numerical convergence in self-gravitating shearing sheet simulations and the stochastic nature of disc fragmentation
• Stability of self-gravitating discs under irradiation
• Convergence of the critical cooling rate for protoplanetary disk fragmentation achieved; the key role of numerical dissipation of angular momentum
• Fragment Production and Survival in Irradiated Disks: A Comprehensive Cooling Criterion
• Numerical convergence in self-gravitating disc simulations: initial conditions and edge effects
• Turbulent Disks are Never Stable: Fragmentation and Turbulence-Promoted Planet Formation
• The response of self-graviting protostellar discs to slow reduction in cooling timescale: the fragmentation boundary revisited
• The fragmentation criteria in local vertically stratified self-gravitating disk simulations
• Gravito-Turbulent Disks in 3D: Turbulent Velocities vs. Depth
• Formation of intermediate-mass planets via magnetically-controlled disk fragmentation
• Magnetorotational instability and dynamo action in gravitoturbulent astrophysical discs
• Gravito-turbulence and the excitation of small-scale parametric instability in astrophysical discs
• On the gravitational stability of gravito-turbulent accretion disks
• Characterizing gravito-turbulence in 3D: turbulent properties and stability against fragmentation
• Quantification of stochastic fragmentation of self-gravitating discs
• Nonlinear outcome of gravitational instability in an irradiated protoplanetary disc
• A two-step gravitational cascade for the fragmentation of self-gravitating discs
• Axisymmetric modes in vertically stratified self-gravitating discs
• Simulating the magnetorotational instability on a moving mesh with the shearing box approximation
• The Role of the Cooling Prescription for Disk Fragmentation: Numerical Convergence & Critical Cooling Parameter in Self-Gravitating Disks
• Gravitoturbulence in magnetised protostellar discs
• The impact of numerical oversteepening on the fragmentation boundary in self-gravitating disks
• Simulating cold shear flows on a moving mesh
• Closing the gap to convergence of gravitoturbulence in local simulations

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Vertical shear instability with dust evolution and consistent cooling times. On the importance of the initial dust distribution
• An efficient spectral Poisson solver for the nirvana-III code: the shearing-box case with vertical vacuum boundary conditions
• How two-dimensional are planet-disc interactions? II. Radiation hydrodynamics and suitable cooling prescriptions