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Published July 1, 2014 | Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

Convective Overstability in Accretion Disks: Three-dimensional Linear Analysis and Nonlinear Saturation

Abstract

Recently, Klahr & Hubbard claimed that a hydrodynamical linear overstability exists in protoplanetary disks, powered by buoyancy in the presence of thermal relaxation. We analyze this claim, confirming it through rigorous compressible linear analysis. We model the system numerically, reproducing the linear growth rate for all cases studied. We also study the saturated properties of the overstability in the shearing box, finding that the saturated state produces finite amplitude fluctuations strong enough to trigger the subcritical baroclinic instability (SBI). Saturation leads to a fast burst of enstrophy in the box, and a large-scale vortex develops in the course of the next ≈100 orbits. The amount of angular momentum transport achieved is of the order of α ≈10^(–3), as in compressible SBI models. For the first time, a self-sustained three-dimensional vortex is produced from linear amplitude perturbation of a quiescent base state.

Additional Information

© 2014 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2014 April 21; Accepted 2014 May 13; Published 2014 June 17. This work was performed in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, under contract with the California Institute of Technology funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through the Sagan Fellowship Program executed by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute. This paper started from a discussion between the author, Alexander Hubbard, Matthew Kunz, Hubert Klahr, Henrik Latter, Geoffroy Lesur, Min-Kai Lin, George Mamatsashvili, and Orkan Umurhan. It further profited from input from Anders Johansen, Mordecai-MarkMac Low, Colin McNally, Neal Turner, and Andrew Youdin.

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Published - 0004-637X_789_1_77.pdf

Submitted - 1405.3437v2.pdf

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August 22, 2023
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