[BIC-announce] Turbulent, Magnetized, MRI-driven Accretion Disks

[Keith Worsley]

MRI in astrophysics?!?

Keith Worsley
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McGill University
805 ouest, rue Sherbrooke, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2K6
tel: (514) 398-3842, fax: (514) 398-3899
e-mail: keith.worsley at mcgill.ca, web: http://www.math.mcgill.ca/keith


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <owner-seminars-ASTRO at physics.mcgill.ca>
To: <seminars-ASTRO at physics.mcgill.ca>
Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 4:27 AM
Subject: November 13th: Special Astrophysics Seminar


> Special Astrophysics Seminar
>     Department of Physics
>       McGill University
>
>     --------------------------------------------------------------------
>       Monday, November 13th 2006, 16:00
>   Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, R.E. Bell Conference Room (room 103)
>     --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>       Turbulent, Magnetized, MRI-driven Accretion Disks:
>     Beyond the alpha-disk
>
> Martin Pessah
>
>     University of Arizona
>
> The last decade has witnessed significant advances in numerical
> simulations of turbulent, magnetized accretion disks. However, because
> of the large temporal and spatial dynamical ranges involved, the study
> of the long-term evolution of the accretion flows and of the accreting
> central objects will remain beyond reach in the near future. In order
> to address, some of the long-standing problems in accretion physics,
> such as the growth of supermassive black holes, the stability of
> accretion disks, and the spin-orbit alignment of accreting compact
> objects in binaries, it is necessary for us to follow a different
> approach. In this talk, I will present the first dynamical, mean-field
> model for angular momentum transport in thin accretion disks that is
> physically motivated, incorporates the MRI as the main driver of the MHD
> turbulence, and reproduces the results of local three-dimensional 
> numerical
> simulations. The model possesses several appealing characteristics: it
> generates turbulence only where the disk is MRI-unstable and does not
> suffer from causality problems across sonic points. I will discuss the
> implications of this model for the global structure of accretion disks
> and their observational signatures.
>
> --
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