Related papers: Convective overstability in accretion disks: 3D li…
When an accretion disk falls prey to the runaway instability, a large portion of its mass is devoured by the black hole within a few dynamical times. Despite decades of effort, it is still unclear under what conditions such an instability…
Turbulent viscosity in cold accretion disks is likely to be hydrodynamic in origin. We investigate the growth of hydrodynamic perturbations in a small region of a disk, which we model as a linear shear flow with Coriolis force, between two…
Energy dynamics calculations in a 3D fluid simulation of drift wave turbulence in the linear Large Plasma Device (LAPD) [W. Gekelman et al., Rev. Sci. Inst. 62, 2875 (1991)] illuminate processes that drive and dissipate the turbulence.…
We present the first three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of a circumbinary disk surrounding an equal mass binary. The binary maintains a fixed circular orbit of separation $a$. As in previous hydrodynamical simulations,…
Using numerical MHD simulations, we have studied the evolution of the magnetorotational instability in stratified accretion disks in which the ionization fraction (and therefore resistivity) varies substantially with height. This model is…
Compressible vortex sheets are fundamental waves in entropy solutions to the multidimensional hyperbolic systems of conservation laws. For the Euler equations in 2-D gas dynamics, the classical linearized stability analysis on compressible…
We present results from a suite of three-dimensional global hydrodynamic simulations which show that spiral density waves propagating in circumstellar disks are unstable to the growth of a parametric instability that leads to break-down of…
Several simulations of turbulence in the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) [W. Gekelman et al., Rev. Sci. Inst. 62, 2875 (1991)] are energetically analyzed and compared with each other and with the experiment. The simulations use the same model,…
Debris disks should not be completely gas-free, since there is second generation gas from outgassing of planetesimals and dust grains via sublimation, photodesorption, or collisions, generating a system of dust-to-gas ratio close to unity,…
Hydrodynamic simulations have been used to study accretion disks consisting of counterrotating components with an intervening shear layer(s). Configurations of this type can arise from the accretion of newly supplied counterrotating matter…
We investigate particle acceleration in an MHD-scale system of multiple current sheets by performing 2D and 3D MHD simulations combined with a test particle simulation. The system is unstable for the tearing-mode instability, and magnetic…
The kinematic properties of unsteady highly non-linear 3D wave groups have been investigated using a numerical wave tank. Although carrier wave speeds based on zero-crossing analysis remain within +-7% of linear theory predictions, crests…
We examine how perturbed shear flows evolve in two-dimensional, incompressible, inviscid hydrodynamical fluids, with the ultimate goal of understanding the dynamics of accretion disks. To linear order, vorticity waves are swung around by…
The beam hosing instability is analyzed theoretically for a witness beam in the quasi-linear regime of plasma accelerators. In this regime, the hosing instability saturates, even for a monoenergetic bunch, at a level much less than standard…
A water-filled differentially heated rotating annulus with initially prepared stable vertical salinity profiles is studied in the laboratory. Based on two-dimensional horizontal particle image velocimetry (PIV) data, and infrared camera…
We study the formation, evolution and physical properties of accretion disks formed via wind capture in binary systems. Using the AMR code AstroBEAR, we have carried out high resolution 3D simulations that follow a stellar mass secondary in…
Quantized vortices stunningly illustrate the coherent nature of a superfluid Bose condensate of alkali atoms. Introducing an optical lattice depletes this coherence. Consequently, novel vortex physics may emerge in an experiment on a…
Accretion disks in binary systems can exhibit a tilt instability, arising from the interaction between components of the tidal potential and dissipation. Using a linear analysis, we show that the aspect ratios and outer radii of…
The collapse of interstellar gaseous clouds towards a protostar leads to the formation of accretion disks around the central star. Such disks can be dynamically stable if they settle in an axisymmetric state. In this letter, we investigate…
Many environmental, energy, and industrial processes involve the flow of polymer solutions in three-dimensional (3D) porous media where fluid is confined to navigate through complex pore space geometries. As polymers are transported through…