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Published 2003 | public
Book Section - Chapter

2- and 3-D Simulations of Magnetocentrifugal Disk-Winds: Acceleration and Stability

Abstract

Protostellar jets and winds are probably driven magnetocentrifugally from the surface of accretion disks close to the central stellar objects. The exact launching conditions on the disk, such as the distributions of magnetic flux and mass ejection rate, are poorly known. They could be constrained from observations at large distances, provided that a robust model is available to link the observable properties of the jets and winds at the large distances to the conditions at the base of the flow. We describe a set of 2D axisymmetric simulations that are able to follow the acceleration and propagation of the wind from the disk surface to arbitrarily large distances. After a typical 2D flow reaches the steady state, we impose on it nonaxisymmetric perturbations and follow numerically its 3D evolution. We find that the wind reverts quickly to its initial axisymmetric state, with no indication of rapid growth of instabilities leading to flow disruption. Our calculations strengthen the case for the magnetocentrifugal jet and wind launching.

Additional Information

© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
January 14, 2024