English

Magnetic shear-driven instability and turbulent mixing in magnetized protostellar disks

Astrophysics 2009-11-13 v1

Abstract

Observations of protostellar disks indicate the presence of the magnetic field of thermal (or superthermal) strength. In such a strong magnetic field, many MHD instabilities responsible for turbulent transport of the angular momentum are suppressed. We consider the shear-driven instability that can occur in protostellar disks even if the field is superthermal. This instability is caused by the combined influence of shear and compressibility in a magnetized gas and can be an efficient mechanism to generate turbulence in disks. The typical growth time is of the order of several rotation periods.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0801.1960,
  title  = {Magnetic shear-driven instability and turbulent mixing in magnetized protostellar disks},
  author = {Alfio Bonanno and Vadim Urpin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0801.1960},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

8 pages, 6 figures, A&A to appear

R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:02:26.847Z