Related papers: Hydrodynamic turbulence cannot transport angular m…
Accretion flows onto underluminous black holes, such as Sagittarius A* at the center of our galaxy, are dilute (mildly collisional to highly collisionless), optically thin, and radiatively inefficient. Therefore, the accretion properties of…
Plasma in the terrestrial magnetosheath is characterised by very weak particle-particle collisions, so kinetic microinstabilities are thought to be responsible for regulating the thermodynamics of the plasma. By exciting electromagnetic…
The flow of an electrically conducting fluid in a thin disc under the action of an azimuthal Lorentz force is studied experimentally. At small forcing, the Lorentz force is balanced by either viscosity or inertia, yielding quasi-Keplerian…
By employing the equations of mean-square vorticity (enstrophy) fluctuations in strong shear flows, we demonstrate that unlike energy production of turbulent vorticity in nonrotating shear flows, the turbulent vorticity of weak convection…
We have investigated evolution of magneto-rotational instability (MRI) in protoplanetary disks that have radially non-uniform magnetic field such that stable and unstable regions coexist initially, and found that a zone in which the disk…
This review article summarizes two decades of laboratory research aimed at understanding the dynamics of accretion disks, with particular emphasis on magnetohydrodynamic experiments involving liquid metals and plasmas. First, the…
During early phases of a protoplanetary disks's life, gravitational instabilities can produce significant mass transport, can dramatically alter disk structure, can mix and shock-process gas and solids, and may be instrumental in planet…
The mechanism behind angular momentum transport in protoplanetary disks, and whether this transport is turbulent in nature, is a fundamental issue in planet formation studies. Recent ALMA observations have suggested that turbulent…
A long-standing puzzle in the study of black-hole accretion concerns the presence or not of thermal instability. Classical theory predicts the encircling accretion disk is unstable, as do some self-consistent MHD simulations of the flow.…
Planets are born in protostellar disks, which are now observed with enough resolution to address questions about internal gas flows. Candidates for driving the flows include magnetic forces, but ionization state estimates suggest much of…
Cool weakly ionized gaseous rotating disk form the basis for many models in astrophysics objects. Instabilities against perturbations in such disks play an important role in the theory of the formation of stars and planets. Traditionally,…
Rotating shear flows, when angular momentum increases and angular velocity decreases as functions of radiation coordinate, are hydrodynamically stable under linear perturbation. The Keplerian flow is an example of such systems which appears…
(abridged) We study the nonlinear evolution of the Rossby wave instability in thin disks using global 2D hydrodynamic simulations. The key questions we are addressing in this paper are: (1) What happens when the instability becomes…
We present a global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) three dimensional simulation of a nonradiative accretion flow originating in a pressure supported torus. The evolution is controlled by the magnetorotational instability which produces…
A fundamental assumption in our understanding of disks is that when the Toomre Q>>1, the disk is stable against fragmentation into self-gravitating objects (and so cannot form planets via direct collapse). But if disks are turbulent, this…
We use global three dimensional radiation magneto-hydrodynamical simulations to study accretion disks onto a $5\times 10^8M_{\odot}$ black hole with accretion rates varying from $\sim 250L_{Edd}/c^2$ to $1500 L_{Edd}/c^2$. We form the disks…
We present global 3D MHD simulations of disks of gas and solids, aiming at developing models that can be used to study various scenarios of planet formation and planet-disk interaction in turbulent accretion disks. A second goal is to show…
We present a linear analysis of the stability of accretion disks in which angular momentum is removed by the magnetic torque exerted by a centrifugally driven wind. The effects of the dependence of the wind torque on field strength and…
Origin of hydrodynamic turbulence in rotating shear flows is investigated. The particular emphasis is the flows whose angular velocity decreases but specific angular momentum increases with increasing radial coordinate. Such flows are…
We present angular momentum transport (torque) measurements in two recent experimental studies of the turbulent flow between independently rotating cylinders. In addition to these studies, we reanalyze prior torque measurements to expand…