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The changes of midlatitude Rossby waves and cold extreme temperature events (cold spells) during warm Arctic winters are analyzed using a dry three-level quasigeostrophic model on the sphere. Two long-term simulations are compared: the first run has the observed wintertime climatology, while the second run includes the composite of the global anomalies associated with the six hottest Arctic winters. A spectral analysis shows a large increase in wave amplitude for near-zero and westward phase speeds and a more moderate decrease for high eastward phase speeds. The increase in low-frequency variability (periods greater than a week) associated with the power shift to slower waves is largely responsible for an increase in midlatitude long-lasting cold spells. In midlatitude regions, in the presence of a mean warming, that increase in low-frequency variance compensates the increase of the mean temperature, resulting at places in a frequency of cold spells that remains by and large unaltered. In presence of mean cooling, both the increase in variance and the decrease in the mean temperature participate in an increased frequency of cold spells. Sensitivity experiments show that the power shift to slower waves is mainly due to the tropical anomalies that developed during those particular winters and less importantly to changes in the background flow at higher latitudes associated with the Arctic amplification pattern.

The radial transport of angular momentum in accretion disk is a fundamental process in the universe. It governs the dynamical evolution of accretion disks and has implications for various issues ranging from the formation of planets to the growth of supermassive black holes. While the importance of magnetic fields for this problem has long been demonstrated, the existence of a source of transport solely hydrodynamical in nature has proven more difficult to establish and to quantify. In recent years, a combination of results coming from experiments, theoretical work and numerical simulations has dramatically improved our understanding of hydrodynamically mediated angular momentum transport in accretion disk. Here, based on these recent developments, we review the hydrodynamical processes that might contribute to transporting angular momentum radially in accretion disks and highlight the many questions that are still to be answered., Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures, proceeding for the Astrofluid conference in honor of Jean-Paul Zahn (Paris, June 2016), references added

Trapped inertial oscillations (r-modes) provide a promising explanation for high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (HFQPOs) observed in the emission from black hole X-ray binary systems. An eccentricity (or warp) can excite r-modes to large amplitudes, but concurrently the oscillations are likely damped by magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability (MRI). We force eccentricity in global, unstratified, zero-net flux MHD simulations of relativistic accretion discs, and find that a sufficiently strong disc distortion generates trapped inertial waves despite this damping. In our simulations, eccentricities above ~ 0.03 in the inner disc excite trapped waves. In addition to the competition between r-mode damping and driving, we observe that larger amplitude eccentric structures modify and in some cases suppress MRI turbulence. Given the variety of distortions (warps as well as eccentricities) capable of amplifying r-modes, the robustness of trapped inertial wave excitation in the face of MRI turbulence in our simulations provides support for a discoseismic explanation for HFQPOs., Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, accepted in MNRAS. Updated with grammatical, typographical, and superficial image corrections

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability can provide diffusive transport of angular momentum in astrophysical disks, and a widely studied computational model for this process is the ideal, stratified, isothermal shearing box. Here we report results of a convergence study of such boxes up to a resolution of $N = 256$ zones per scale height, performed on blue waters at NCSA with ramses-gpu. We find that the time and vertically integrated dimensionless shear stress $\overline{\alpha} \sim N^{-1/3}$, i.e. the shear stress is resolution dependent. We also find that the magnetic field correlation length decreases with resolution, $\lambda \sim N^{-1/2}$. This variation is strongest at the disk midplane. We show that our measurements of $\alpha$ are consistent with earlier studies. We discuss possible reasons for the lack of convergence., Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures, submitted to ApJ. Comments welcome

The physical processes involved in the advective-acoustic instability are investigated with 2D numerical simulations. Simple toy models, developped in a companion paper, are used to describe the coupling between acoustic and entropy/vorticity waves, produced either by a stationary shock or by the deceleration of the flow. Using two Eulerian codes based on different second order upwind schemes, we confirm the results of the perturbative analysis. The numerical convergence with respect to the computation mesh size is studied with 1D simulations. We demonstrate that the numerical accuracy of the quantities which depend on the physics of the shock is limited to a linear convergence. We argue that this property is likely to be true for most current numerical schemes dealing with SASI in the core-collapse problem, and could be solved by the use of advanced techniques for the numerical treatment of the shock. We propose a strategy to choose the mesh size for an accurate treatment of the advective-acoustic coupling in future numerical simulations., Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, ApJ in press, new Sect. 5 and Fig. 9

The aim of this paper is to study the vertical profile of small dust particles in protoplanetary discs in which angular momentum transport is due to MHD turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability. We consider particle sizes that range from approximately 1 micron up to a few millimeters.We use a grid--based MHD code to perform global two-fluid simulations of turbulent protoplanetary discs which contain dust grains of various sizes. In quasi--steady state, the gravitational settling of dust particles is balanced by turbulent diffusion. Simple and standard models of this process fail to describe accurately the vertical profile of the dust density. The disagreement is larger for small dust particles (of a few microns in size), especially in the disc upper layers ($Z>3H$, where $H$ is the scale-height). Here there can be orders of magnitude in the disagreement between the simple model predictions and the simulation results. This is because MHD turbulence is not homogeneous in accretion discs, since velocity fluctuations increase significantly in the disc upper layer where a strongly magnetized corona develops. We provide an alternative model that gives a better fit to the simulations. In this model, dust particles are diffused away from the midplane by MHD turbulence, but the diffusion coefficient varies vertically and is everywhere proportional to the square of the local turbulent vertical velocity fluctuations. The spatial distribution of dust particles can be used to trace the properties of MHD turbulence in protoplanetary discs, such as the amplitude of the velocity fluctuations. In the future, detailed and direct comparison between numerical simulations and observations should prove a useful tool for constraining the properties of turbulence in protoplanetary discs., 13 pages, 13 pages, accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Accretion discs are ubiquitous in the universe and it is a crucial issue to understand how angular momentum and mass are being radially transported in these objects. Here, we study the role played by non-linear spiral patterns within hydrodynamical and non self-gravitating accretion disc assuming that external disturbances such as infall onto the disc may trigger them. To do so, we computed self-similar solutions that describe discs in which a spiral wave propagates. Such solutions present both shocks and critical sonic points that we carefully analyze. For all allowed temperatures and for several spiral shocks, we calculated the wave structure. In particular we inferred the angle of the spiral patern, the stress it exerts on the disc as well as the associated flux of mass and angular momentum as a function of temperature. We quantified the rate of angular momentum transport by means of the dimensionless $\alpha$ parameter. For the thickest disc we considered (corresponding to $h/r$ values of about 1/3), we found values of $\alpha$ as high as $0.1$, and scaling with the temperature $T$ such that $\alpha \propto T^{3/2} \propto (h/r)^3$. The spiral angle scales with the temperature as $\arctan(r/h)$. The existence of these solutions suggests that perturbations occurring at disc outer boundaries, such as for example perturbations due to infall motions, can propagate deep inside the disc and therefore should not be ignored, even when considering small radii., Comment: accepted for publication in A&A

Detailed modeling of the high-energy emission from gamma-ray binaries has been propounded as a path to pulsar wind physics. Fulfilling this ambition requires a coherent model of the flow and its emission in the region where the pulsar wind interacts with the stellar wind of its companion. We developed a code that follows the evolution and emission of electrons in the shocked pulsar wind based on inputs from a relativistic hydrodynamical simulation. The code is used to model the well-documented spectral energy distribution and orbital modulations from LS 5039. The pulsar wind is fully confined by a bow shock and a back shock. The particles are distributed into a narrow Maxwellian, emitting mostly GeV photons, and a power law radiating very efficiently over a broad energy range from X-rays to TeV gamma rays. Most of the emission arises from the apex of the bow shock. Doppler boosting shapes the X-ray and VHE lightcurves, constraining the system inclination to $i\approx 35^{\rm o}$. There is a tension between the hard VHE spectrum and the level of X-ray to MeV emission, which requires differing magnetic field intensities that are hard to achieve with a constant magnetisation $\sigma$ and Lorentz factor $\Gamma_{p}$ of the pulsar wind. Our best compromise implies $\sigma\approx 1$ and $\Gamma_{p}\approx 5\times 10^{3}$, respectively higher and lower than the typical values in pulsar wind nebulae. The high value of $\sigma$ derived here, where the wind is confined close to the pulsar, supports the classical picture that has pulsar winds highly magnetised at launch. However, such magnetisations will require further investigations to be based on relativistic MHD simulations., Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, under review with A&A (appendix with movies could not be uploaded to ArXiV)

We propose to extend the well-known MUSCL-Hancock scheme for Euler equations to the induction equation modeling the magnetic field evolution in kinematic dynamo problems. The scheme is based on an integral form of the underlying conservation law which, in our formulation, results in a ``finite-surface'' scheme for the induction equation. This naturally leads to the well-known ``constrained transport'' method, with additional continuity requirement on the magnetic field representation. The second ingredient in the MUSCL scheme is the predictor step that ensures second order accuracy both in space and time. We explore specific constraints that the mathematical properties of the induction equations place on this predictor step, showing that three possible variants can be considered. We show that the most aggressive formulations (referred to as C-MUSCL and U-MUSCL) reach the same level of accuracy as the other one (referred to as Runge-Kutta), at a lower computational cost. More interestingly, these two schemes are compatible with the Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) framework. It has been implemented in the AMR code RAMSES. It offers a novel and efficient implementation of a second order scheme for the induction equation. We have tested it by solving two kinematic dynamo problems in the low diffusion limit. The construction of this scheme for the induction equation constitutes a step towards solving the full MHD set of equations using an extension of our current methodology., Comment: 40 pages, 10 figures, accepted in Journal of Computational Physics. A version with full resolution is available at http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/fromang/publi/TFD.pdf

Massive disk fragmentation has been suggested to be one of the mechanisms leading to the formation of giant planets. While it has been heavily studied in quiescent hydrodynamic disks, the effect of MHD turbulence arising from the magnetorotational instability (MRI) has never been investigated. This paper fills this gap and presents 3D numerical simulations of the evolution of locally isothermal, massive and magnetized disks. In the absence of magnetic fields, a laminar disk fragments and clumps are formed due to the effect of self--gravity. Although they disapear in less than a dynamical timescale in the simulations because of the limited numerical resolution, various diagnostics suggest that they should survive and form giant planets in real disks. When the disk is magnetized, it becomes turbulent at the same time as gravitational instabilities develop. At intermediate resolution, no fragmentation is observed in these turbulent models, while a large number of fragments appear in the equivalent hydrodynamical runs. This is because MHD turbulence reduces the strength of the gravitational instability. As the resolution is increased, the most unstable wavelengths of the MRI are better resolved and small scale angular momentum transport starts to play a role: fragments are found to form in massive and turbulent disks in that case. All of these results indicate that there is a complicated interaction between gravitational instabilities and MHD turbulence that influences disk fragmentation processes., 8 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

In this paper and a companion work, we report on the first global numerical simulations of self-gravitating magnetized tori, subject in particular to the influence of the magnetorotational instability (MRI). In this work, paper I, we restrict our calculations to the study of the axisymmetric evolution of such tori. Our goals are twofold: (1) to investigate how self-gravity influences the global structure and evolution of the disks; and (2) to determine whether turbulent density inhomogeneities can be enhanced by self-gravity in this regime. As in non self-gravitating models, the linear growth of the MRI is followed by a turbulent phase during which angular momentum is transported outward. As a result, self-gravitating tori quickly develop a dual structure composed of an inner thin Keplerian disk fed by a thicker self-gravitating disk, whose rotation profile is close to a Mestel disk. Our results show that the effects of self-gravity enhance density fluctuations much less than they smooth the disk, and giving it more coherence. We discuss the expected changes that will occur in 3D simulations, the results of which are presented in a companion paper., 20 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

We present the first global simulations of self-gravitating magnetized tori. The simulations are performed with Zeus-2D and GLOBAL. We find the magnetorotational instability (MRI) to behave similarly in a self-gravitating environment as in previous simulations of non self-gravitating systems: enhancement of turbulent angular momentum transport follows the linear phase. The torus quickly develops a two component structure composed of an inner thick disk in Keplerian rotation and an outer massive disk. We compare this result with zero mass global simulations in 2D, and also present preliminary results of 3D simulations., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, kluwer.cls, To appear in the proceedings of "Magnetic fields and star formation: Theory versus observations", Madrid,April 21-25 2003

We numerically investigate the dynamics of a 2D non-magnetised protoplanetary disc surrounded by an inflow coming from an external envelope. We find that the accretion shock between the disc and the inflow is unstable, leading to the generation of large-amplitude spiral density waves. These spiral waves propagate over long distances, down to radii at least ten times smaller than the accretion shock radius. We measure spiral-driven outward angular momentum transport with 1e-4 < alpha < 1e-2 for an inflow accretion rate Mout>1e-8 Msun/yr. We conclude that the interaction of the disc with its envelope leads to long-lived spiral density waves and radial angular momentum transport with rates that cannot be neglected in young non-magnetised protostellar discs., 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted in A&A Letters

In protoplanetary disks, the inner boundary between the turbulent and laminar regions could be a promising site for planet formation, thanks to the trapping of solids at the boundary itself or in vortices generated by the Rossby wave instability. At the interface, the disk thermodynamics and the turbulent dynamics are entwined because of the importance of turbulent dissipation and thermal ionization. Numerical models of the boundary, however, have neglected the thermodynamics, and thus miss a part of the physics. The aim of this paper is to numerically investigate the interplay between thermodynamics and dynamics in the inner regions of protoplanetary disks by properly accounting for turbulent heating and the dependence of the resistivity on the local temperature. Using the Godunov code RAMSES, we performed a series of 3D global numerical simulations of protoplanetary disks in the cylindrical limit, including turbulent heating and a simple prescription for radiative cooling. We find that waves excited by the turbulence significantly heat the dead zone, and we subsequently provide a simple theoretical framework for estimating the wave heating and consequent temperature profile. In addition, our simulations reveal that the dead-zone inner edge can propagate outward into the dead zone, before staling at a critical radius that can be estimated from a mean-field model. The engine driving the propagation is in fact density wave heating close to the interface. A pressure maximum appears at the interface in all simulations, and we note the emergence of the Rossby wave instability in simulations with extended azimuth. Our simulations illustrate the complex interplay between thermodynamics and turbulent dynamics in the inner regions of protoplanetary disks. They also reveal how important activity at the dead-zone interface can be for the dead-zone thermodynamic structure., 16 pages, 16 figures. Accepted in Astronomy and Astrophysics

Protoplanetary discs are poorly ionised due to their low temperatures and high column densities, and are therefore subject to three "non-ideal" magnetohydrodynamic effects: Ohmic dissipation, ambipolar diffusion, and the Hall effect. The existence of magnetically driven turbulence in these discs has been a central question since the discovery of the magnetorotational instability. Early models considered Ohmic diffusion only and led to a scenario of layered accretion, in which a magnetically "dead" zone in the disc midplane is embedded within magnetically "active" surface layers at distances ~1-10 au from the central protostellar object. Recent work has suggested that a combination of Ohmic dissipation and ambipolar diffusion can render both the midplane and surface layers of the disc inactive and that torques due to magnetically driven outflows are required to explain the observed accretion rates. We reassess this picture by performing three-dimensional numerical simulations that include, for the first time, all three non-ideal MHD effects. We find that the Hall effect can generically "revive" dead zones by producing a dominant azimuthal magnetic field and a large-scale Maxwell stress throughout the midplane, provided the angular velocity and magnetic field satisfy Omega.B > 0. The attendant large magnetic pressure modifies the vertical density profile and substantially increases the disc scale height beyond its hydrostatic value. Outflows are produced, but are not necessary to explain accretion rates, 16 pages, 18 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Planets appear to form in environments shaped by the gas flowing through protostellar disks to the central young stars. The flows in turn are governed by orbital angular momentum transfer. In this chapter we summarize current understanding of the transfer processes best able to account for the flows, including magneto-rotational turbulence, magnetically launched winds, self-gravitational instability, and vortices driven by hydrodynamical instabilities. For each, in turn, we outline the major achievements of the past few years and the outstanding questions. We underscore the requirements for operation, especially ionization for the magnetic processes and heating and cooling for the others. We describe the distribution and strength of the resulting flows and compare them with the long-used phenomenological a-picture, highlighting issues where the fuller physical picture yields substantially different answers. We also discuss the links between magnetized turbulence and magnetically launched outflows, and between magnetized turbulence and hydrodynamical vortices. We end with a summary of the status of efforts to detect specific signatures of the flows.

Gamma-ray binaries are composed of a massive star and a rotation-powered pulsar with a highly relativistic wind. The collision between the winds from both objects creates a shock structure where particles are accelerated, resulting in the observed high energy emission. We study the impact of special relativity on the structure and stability of the colliding wind region and highlight the differences with colliding winds from massive stars. We focus on evolution with increasing values of the Lorentz factor of the pulsar wind, keeping in mind that current simulations are unable to reach the expected values of the pulsar wind Lorentz factors by orders of magnitude. We use high resolution numerical simulations with a relativistic extension to the hydrodynamics code RAMSES we have developed. Using 2D simulations, we focus on the region close to the binary, neglecting orbital motion. We use different values of the Lorentz factor of the pulsar wind, up to 16. We find analytic scaling relations between stellar wind collisions and gamma-ray binaries. They provide the position of the contact discontinuity. The position of the shocks strongly depends on the Lorentz factor, the relativistic wind is more collimated than expected based on non-relativistic simulations. Beyond a certain distance, the shocked flow is accelerated to its initial velocity and follows adiabatic expansion. We provide guidance for extrapolation towards more realistic values of the Lorentz factor of the pulsar wind. We extended the adaptive mesh refinement code RAMSES to relativistic hydrodynamics. This code is suited for the study of astrophysical objects such as pulsar wind nebulae, gamma-ray bursts or relativistic jets and will be part of the next public release of RAMSES. Using this code we performed simulations of gamma-ray binaries, highlighting the limits and possibilities of current hydrodynamic models of such systems., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

Angular momentum transport in accretion disk has been the focus of intense research in theoretical astrophysics for many decades. In the past twenty years, MHD turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability has emerged as an efficient mechanism to achieve that goal. Yet, many questions and uncertainties remain, among which the saturation level of the turbulence. The consequences of the magnetorotational instability for planet formation models are still being investigated. This lecture, given in September 2012 at the school "Role and mechanisms of angular momentum transport in the formation and early evolution of stars" in Aussois (France), aims at introducing the historical developments, current status and outstanding questions related to the magnetorotational instability that are currently at the forefront of academic research., 51 pages, 16 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the Evry Schatzman School 2012 of PNPS and CNRS/INSU on the "Role and mechanisms of angular momentum transport during the formation and early evolution of stars", Eds. P.Hennebelle & C.Charbonnel

The aim of this paper is to investigate the properties of accretion disks threaded by a weak vertical magnetic field, with a particular focus on the interplay between MHD turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability (MRI) and outflows that might be launched from the disk. For that purpose, we use a set of numerical simulations performed with the MHD code RAMSES in the framework of the shearing box model. We concentrate on the case of a rather weak vertical magnetic field such that the initial ratio beta0 of the thermal and magnetic pressures in the disk midplane equals 10^4. As reported recently, we find that MHD turbulence drives an efficient outflow out of the computational box. We demonstrate a strong sensitivity of that result to the box size: enlargements in the radial and vertical directions lead to a reduction of up to an order of magnitude in the mass-loss rate. Such a dependence prevents any realistic estimates of disk mass-loss rates being derived using shearing-box simulations. We find however that the flow morphology is robust and independent of the numerical details of the simulations. Its properties display some features and approximate invariants that are reminiscent of the Blandford & Payne launching mechanism, but differences exist. For the magnetic field strength considered in this paper, we also find that angular momentum transport is most likely dominated by MHD turbulence, the saturation of which scales with the magnetic Prandtl number, the ratio of viscosity and resistivity, in a way that is in good agreement with expectations based on unstratified simulations. This paper thus demonstrates for the first time that accretion disks can simultaneously exhibit MRI-driven MHD turbulence along with magneto-centrifugally accelerated outflows., 15 pages, 14 figures, changes according to referee report. Accepted in Astronomy and Astrophysics

[Abridged] Theoretical and numerical studies of star formation have shown that magnetic field (B) has a strong influence on both disk formation and fragmentation; even a relatively low B can prevent these processes. However, very few studies investigated the combined effects of B and turbulence. We study the effects of turbulence in magnetized core collapse, focusing on the magnetic diffusion, the orientation of the angular momentum (J) of the protostellar core, and on its consequences on disk formation, fragmentation and outflows. We perform 3D, AMR, MHD simulations of magnetically supercritical collapsing dense cores of 5 Msun using the MHD code RAMSES. A turbulent velocity field is imposed as initial conditions, characterised by a Kolmogorov power spectrum. Different levels of turbulence and magnetization are investigated, as well as 3 realisations for the turbulent velocity field. Magnetic diffusion, orientation of the rotation axis with respect to B, transport of J, disk formation, fragmentation and outflows formation are studied. The turbulent velocity field imposed as initial conditions contains a non-zero J, responsible for a misalignment of the rotation axis. Turbulence is also responsible for an effective turbulent diffusivity in the vicinity of the core. Both effects are responsible for a significant decrease of the magnetic braking, and facilitate the formation of early massive disks for not too high magnetization. Fragmentation can occur even with mu ~ 5 at late time in contrast with 1 Msun cores for which fragmentation is prevented for such values of mu. Slow asymmetric outflows are launched. They carry a mass which is comparable to the mass within the core. Because of misalignment and turbulent diffusion, massive disk formation is possible though their mass and size are still reduced compared to the hydrodynamical case. We find that for mu >= 5, fragmentation can happen., 15 pages, 21 figures, submitted in A&A

The collision of winds from massive stars in binaries results in the formation of a double-shock structure with observed signatures from radio to X-rays. We study the structure and stability of the colliding wind region as it turns into a spiral due to orbital motion. We focus on adiabatic winds, where mixing between the two winds is expected to be restricted to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI). Mixing of the Wolf-Rayet wind with hydrogen-rich material is important for dust formation in pinwheel nebulae such as WR 104, where the spiral structure has been resolved in infrared. We use the hydrodynamical code RAMSES with an adaptive grid. A wide range of binary systems with different wind velocities and mass loss rates are studied with 2D simulations. A specific 3D simulation is performed to model WR 104. Orbital motion leads to the formation of two distinct spiral arms where the KHI develops differently. We find that the spiral structure is destroyed when there is a large velocity gradient between the winds, unless the collimated wind is much faster. We argue that the KHI plays a major role in maintaining or not the structure. We discuss the consequences for various colliding wind binaries. When stable, there is no straightforward relationship between the spatial step of the spiral, the wind velocities, and the orbital period. Our 3D simulation of WR 104 indicates that the colder, well-mixed trailing arm has more favourable conditions for dust formation than the leading arm. The single-arm infrared spiral follows more closely the mixing map than the density map, suggesting the dust-to-gas ratio may vary between the leading and trailing density spirals. However, the density is much lower than what dust formation models require. Including radiative cooling would lead to higher densities, and also to thin shell instabilities whose impact on the large structure remains unknown., Submitted to Astronomy and Astophysics

Gamma-ray binaries are colliding wind binaries (CWB) composed of a massive star a non-accreting pulsar with a highly relativistic wind. Particle acceleration at the shocks results in emission going from extended radio emission to the gamma-ray band. The interaction region is expected to show common features with stellar CWB. Performing numerical simulations with the hydrodynamical code RAMSES, we focus on their structure and stability and find that the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) can lead to important mixing between the winds and destroy the large scale spiral structure. To investigate the impact of the relativistic nature of the pulsar wind, we extend RAMSES to relativistic hydrodynamics (RHD). Preliminary simulations of the interaction between a pulsar wind and a stellar wind show important similarities with stellar colliding winds with small relativistic corrections., Comment: Proceeding of the 5th International Symposium on High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy (Gamma2012). arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1212.4045

Based on the viscous disk theory, a number of recent studies have suggested there is large scale meridional circulation in protoplanetary disks. Such a flow could account for the presence of crystalline silicates, including calcium- and aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs), at large distances from the sun. This paper aims at examining whether such large-scale flows exist in turbulent protoplanetary disks. High-resolution global hydrodynamical and magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) numerical simulations of turbulent protoplanetary disks were used to infer the properties of the flow in such disks. By performing hydrodynamic simulations using explicit viscosity, we demonstrate that our numerical setup does not suffer from any numerical artifact. The aforementioned meridional circulation is easily recovered in viscous and laminar disks and is quickly established. In MHD simulations, the magnetorotational instability drives turbulence in the disks. Averaging out the turbulent fluctuations on a long timescale, the results fail to show any large-scale meridional circulation. A detailed analysis of the simulations show that this lack of meridional circulation is due to the turbulent stress tensor having a vertical profile different from the viscous stress tensor. A simple model is provided that successfully accounts for the structure of the flow in the bulk of the disk. In addition to those results, possible deviations from standard vertically averaged alpha disk models are suggested by the simulations and should be the focus of future work. Global MHD numerical simulations of fully ionized and turbulent protoplanetary disks are not consistent with the existence of a large-scale meridional flow. As a consequence, the presence of crystalline silicates at large distance for the central star cannot be accounted for by that process as suggested by recent models based on viscous disk theory., Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, changes according to referee report. Accepted to Astronomy and Astrophysics

Calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs) are the oldest solar system solids known in primitive meteorites (chondrites). They predate the other components by 1-2 Myr, and likely condensed within a short time interval, close to the Sun in the gaseous protoplanetary disk. Their preservation must counterbalance both the sunward drift caused by gas drag and the general inward motion of the entraining gas. We propose that an efficient outward transport of CAIs can be achieved by advection as a result of the viscous expansion of the disk, provided it is initially less than 10 AU in size, which we argue is plausible from both observational and theoretical points of view. Gas drag would stop this outward motion within $10^5$ yr. However, by that time, a magnetically dead zone would have developed as gravitational instabilities fade away, which would trap CAIs for a significant fraction of the disk lifetime because of the reduced advection velocities. The dead zone would also prevent outward diffusion of subsequently condensed CAIs, contributing to their observed narrow age range. This preservation mechanism is independent of the outward transport scenario (before the dead zone formation) and a natural consequence of considering the source of turbulence in accretion disks., Comment: Accepted to Astronomy & Astrophysics (Letter to the Editor). 4 pages, 2 figures

This letter investigates the transport properties of MHD turbulence induced by the magnetorotational instability at large Reynolds numbers Re when the magnetic Prandtl number Pm is larger than unity. Three MHD simulations of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in the unstratified shearing box with zero net flux are presented. These simulations are performed with the code Zeus and consider the evolution of the rate of angular momentum transport as Re is gradually increased from 3125 to 12500 while simultaneously keeping Pm=4. To ensure that the small scale features of the flow are well resolved, the resolution varies from 128 cells per disk scaleheight to 512 cells per scaleheight. The latter constitutes the highest resolution of an MRI turbulence simulation to date. The rate of angular momentum transport, measured using the alpha parameter, depends only very weakly on the Reynolds number: alpha is found to be about 0.007 with variations around this mean value bounded by 15% in all simulations. There is no systematic evolution with Re. For the best resolved model, the kinetic energy power spectrum tentatively displays a power-law range with an exponent -3/2, while the magnetic energy is found to shift to smaller and smaller scales as the magnetic Reynolds number increases. A couple of different diagnostics both suggest a well-defined injection length of a fraction of a scaleheight. The results presented in this letter are consistent with the MRI being able to transport angular momentum efficiently at large Reynolds numbers when Pm=4 in unstratified zero net flux shearing boxes., 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted in Astronomy and Astrophysics

We measure the turbulent resistivity in the nonlinear regime of the MRI, and evaluate the turbulent magnetic Prandtl number. We perform a set of numerical simulations with the Eulerian finite volume codes Athena and Ramses in the framework of the shearing box model. We consider models including explicit dissipation coefficients and magnetic field topologies such that the net magnetic flux threading the box in both the vertical and azimuthal directions vanishes. We first demonstrate good agreement between the two codes by comparing the properties of the turbulent states in simulations having identical microscopic diffusion coefficients (viscosity and resistivity). We find the properties of the turbulence do not change when the box size is increased in the radial direction, provided it is elongated in the azimuthal direction. To measure the turbulent resistivity in the disk, we impose a fixed electromotive force on the flow and measure the amplitude of the saturated magnetic field that results. We obtain a turbulent resistivity that is in rough agreement with mean field theories like the Second Order Smoothing Approximation. The numerical value translates into a turbulent magnetic Prandtl number Pm_t of order unity. Pm_t appears to be an increasing function of the forcing we impose. It also becomes smaller as the box size is increased in the radial direction, in good agreement with previous results obtained in very large boxes. Our results are in general agreement with other recently published papers studying the same problem but using different methodology. Thus, our conclusion that Pm_t is of order unity appears robust., 11 pages, 7 figures. Accepted in Astronomy and Astrophysics, minor changes following referee report

We present kinematic simulations of a galactic dynamo model based on the large scale differential rotation and the small scale helical fluctuations due to supernova explosions. We report for the first time direct numerical simulations of the full galactic dynamo using an unparameterized global approach. We argue that the scale of helicity injection is large enough to be directly resolved rather than parameterized. While the actual superbubble characteristics can only be approached, we show that numerical simulations yield magnetic structures which are close both to the observations and to the previous parameterized mean field models. In particular, the quadrupolar symmetry and the spiraling properties of the field are reproduced. Moreover, our simulations show that the presence of a vertical inflow plays an essential role to increase the magnetic growth rate. This observation could indicate an important role of the downward flow (possibly linked with galactic fountains) in sustaining galactic magnetic fields., 5 pages, 6 figures

Abridged. It is important for the star formation process to understand the collapse of a prestellar dense core. We investigate the effect of the magnetic field during the first collapse up to the formation of the firstcore, focusing particularly on the magnetic braking and the launching of outflows. We perform 3D AMR high resolution numerical simulations of a magnetically supercritical collapsing dense core using the RAMSES MHD code and develop semi-analytical models that we compare with the numerical results. We study in detail the various profiles within the envelope of the collapsing core for various magnetic field strengths. Even modest values of magnetic field strength modify the collapse significantly. This is largely due to the amplification of the radial and toroidal components of the magnetic field by the differential motions within the collapsing core. For a weak magnetic intensity corresponding to an initial mass-to-flux over critical mass-to-flux ratio, $\mu$ equals to 20, a centrifugally supported disk forms. The strong differential rotation triggers the growth of a slowly expanding magnetic tower. For a higher magnetic field strengths corresponding to $\mu=2$, the collapse occurs primarily along the field lines, therefore delivering weaker angular momentum in the inner part whereas at the same time, strong magnetic braking occurs. As a consequence no centrifugally supported disk forms. An outflow is launched from the central thermally supported core. Detailed comparisons with existing analytical predictions indicate that it is magneto-centrifugally driven. For cores having a mass-to-flux over critical mass-to-flux radio $\mu < 5$, the magnetic field appears to have a significant impact....., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A

We study the influence of the choice of transport coefficients (viscosity and resistivity) on MHD turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in accretion disks. We follow the methodology described in paper I: we adopt an unstratified shearing box model and focus on the case where the net vertical magnetic flux threading the box vanishes. For the most part we use the finite difference code ZEUS, including explicit transport coefficients in the calculations. However, we also compare our results with those obtained using other algorithms (NIRVANA, the PENCIL code and a spectral code) to demonstrate both the convergence of our results and their independence of the numerical scheme. We find that small scale dissipation affects the saturated state of MHD turbulence. In agreement with recent similar numerical simulations done in the presence of a net vertical magnetic flux, we find that turbulent activity (measured by the rate of angular momentum transport) is an increasing function of the magnetic Prandtl number Pm for all values of the Reynolds number Re that we investigated. We also found that turbulence disappears when the Prandtl number falls below a critical value Pm_c that is apparently a decreasing function of Re. For the limited region of parameter space that can be probed with current computational resources, we always obtained Pm_c>1. We conclude that the magnitudes of the transport coefficients are important in determining the properties of MHD turbulence in numerical simulations in the shearing box with zero net flux, at least for Reynolds numbers and magnetic Prandtl numbers that are such that transport is not dominated by numerical effects and thus can be probed using current computational resources., 10 pages, 13 figures, accepted in A&A. Numerical results improved, minor changes in the text

We study the properties of MHD turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in accretion disks. We adopt the local shearing box model and focus on the special case for which the initial magnetic flux threading the disk vanishes. We employ the finite difference code ZEUS to evolve the ideal MHD equations. Performing a set of numerical simulations in a fixed computational domain with increasing resolution, we demonstrate that turbulent activity decreases as resolution increases. We quantify the turbulent activity by measuring the rate of angular momentum transport through evaluating the standard alpha parameter. We find alpha=0.004 when (N_x,N_y,N_z)=(64,100,64), alpha=0.002 when (N_x,N_y,N_z)=(128,200,128) and alpha=0.001 when (N_x,N_y,N_z)=(256,400,256). This steady decline is an indication that numerical dissipation, occurring at the grid scale is an important determinant of the saturated form of the MHD turbulence. Analysing the results in Fourier space, we demonstrate that this is due to the MRI forcing significant flow energy all the way down to the grid dissipation scale. We also use our results to study the properties of the numerical dissipation in ZEUS. Its amplitude is characterised by the magnitude of an effective magnetic Reynolds number Re_M which increases from 10^4 to 10^5 as the number of grid points is increased from 64 to 256 per scale height. The simulations we have carried out do not produce results that are independent of the numerical dissipation scale, even at the highest resolution studied. Thus it is important to use physical dissipation, both viscous and resistive, and to quantify contributions from numerical effects, when performing numerical simulations of MHD turbulence with zero net flux in accretion disks at the resolutions normally considered., 10 pages, 15 figures, accepted in A&A. Numerical results improved, various numerical issues addressed (boundary conditions, box size, run durations)

In this paper, we study the propagation and stability of nonlinear sound waves in accretion disks. Using the shearing box approximation, we derive the form of these waves using a semi-analytic approach and go on to study their stability. The results are compared to those of numerical simulations performed using finite difference approaches such as employed by ZEUS as well as Godunov methods. When the wave frequency is between Omega and two Omega (where Omega is the disk orbital angular velocity), it can couple resonantly with a pair of linear inertial waves and thus undergo a parametric instability. Neglecting the disk vertical stratification, we derive an expression for the growth rate when the amplitude of the background wave is small. Good agreement is found with the results of numerical simulations performed both with finite difference and Godunov codes. During the nonlinear phase of the instability, the flow remains well organised if the amplitude of the background wave is small. However, strongly nonlinear waves break down into turbulence. In both cases, the background wave is damped and the disk eventually returns to a stationary state. Finally, we demonstrate that the instability also develops when density stratification is taken into account and so is robust. This destabilisation of freely propagating nonlinear sound waves may be important for understanding the complicated behaviour of density waves in disks that are unstable through the effects of self-gravity or magnetic fields and is likely to affect the propagation of waves that are tidally excited by objects such as a protoplanet or companion perturbing a protoplanetary disk. The nonlinear wave solutions described here as well as their stability properties were also found to be useful for testing and comparing the performance of different numerical codes., 21 pages, 15 figures, accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We present the results of global 3-D MHD simulations of stratified and turbulent protoplanetary disc models. The aim of this work is to develop thin disc models capable of sustaining turbulence for long run times, which can be used for on-going studies of planet formation in turbulent discs. The results are obtained using two codes written in spherical coordinates: GLOBAL and NIRVANA. Both are time--explicit and use finite differences along with the Constrained Transport algorithm to evolve the equations of MHD. In the presence of a weak toroidal magnetic field, a thin protoplanetary disc in hydrostatic equilibrium is destabilised by the magnetorotational instability (MRI). When the resolution is large enough (25 vertical grid cells per scale height), the entire disc settles into a turbulent quasi steady-state after about 300 orbits. Angular momentum is transported outward such that the standard alpha parameter is roughly 4-6*10^{-3}. We find that the initial toroidal flux is expelled from the disc midplane and that the disc behaves essentially as a quasi-zero net flux disc for the remainder of the simulation. As in previous studies, the disc develops a dual structure composed of an MRI--driven turbulent core around its midplane, and a magnetised corona stable to the MRI near its surface. By varying disc parameters and boundary conditions, we show that these basic properties of the models are robust. The high resolution disc models we present in this paper achieve a quasi--steady state and sustain turbulence for hundreds of orbits. As such, they are ideally suited to the study of outstanding problems in planet formation such as disc--planet interactions and dust dynamics., 19 pages, 29 figures, accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics

In this paper, we study the effect of MHD turbulence on the dynamics of dust particles in protoplanetary disks. We vary the size of the particles and relate the dust evolution to the turbulent velocity fluctuations. We performed numerical simulations using two Eulerian MHD codes, both based on finite difference techniques: ZEUS--3D and NIRVANA. These were local shearing box simulations incorporating vertical stratification. Both ideal and non ideal MHD simulations with midplane dead zones were carried out. The codes were extended to incorporate different models for the dust as an additional fluid component. Good agreement between results obtained using the different approaches was obtained. The simulations show that a thin layer of very small dust particles is diffusively spread over the full vertical extent of the disk. We show that a simple description obtained using the diffusion equation with a diffusion coefficient simply expressed in terms of the velocity correlations accurately matches the results. Dust settling starts to become apparent for particle sizes of the order of 1 to 10 centimeters for which the gas begins to decouple in a standard solar nebula model at 5.2 AU. However, for particles which are 10 centimeters in size, complete settling toward a very thin midplane layer is prevented by turbulent motions within the disk, even in the presence of a midplane dead zone of significant size. These results indicate that, when present, MHD turbulence affects dust dynamics in protoplanetary disks. We find that the evolution and settling of the dust can be accurately modelled using an advection diffusion equation that incorporates vertical settling. The value of the diffusion coefficient can be calculated from the turbulent velocity field when that is known for a time of several local orbits., 15 pages, 16 figures, accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics

International audience; Aims. In this paper, we present a new method to perform numerical simulations of astrophysical MHD flows using the Adaptive Mesh Refinement framework and Constrained Transport. Methods: . The algorithm is based on a previous work in which the MUSCL-Hancock scheme was used to evolve the induction equation. In this paper, we detail the extension of this scheme to the full MHD equations and discuss its properties. Results: . Through a series of test problems, we illustrate the performances of this new code using two different MHD Riemann solvers (Lax-Friedrich and Roe) and the need of the Adaptive Mesh Refinement capabilities in some cases. Finally, we show its versatility by applying it to two completely different astrophysical situations well studied in the past years: the growth of the magnetorotational instability in the shearing box and the collapse of magnetized cloud cores. Conclusions: . We have implemented a new Godunov scheme to solve the ideal MHD equations in the AMR code RAMSES. We have shown that it results in a powerful tool that can be applied to a great variety of astrophysical problems, ranging from galaxies formation in the early universe to high resolution studies of molecular cloud collapse in our galaxy.

Using 2D MHD numerical simulations performed with two different finite difference Eulerian codes, we analyze the effect that a toroidal magnetic field has on low mass planet migration in nonturbulent protoplanetary discs. The presence of the magnetic field modifies the waves that can propagate in the disc. In agreement with a recent linear analysis (Terquem 2003), we find that two magnetic resonances develop on both sides of the planet orbit, which contribute to a significant global torque. In order to measure the torque exerted by the disc on the planet, we perform simulations in which the latter is either fixed on a circular orbit or allowed to migrate. For a 5 earth mass planet, when the ratio \beta between the square of the sound speed and that of the Alfven speed at the location of the planet is equal to 2, we find inward migration when the magnetic field B_{\phi} is uniform in the disc, reduced migration when B_{\phi} decreases as r^{-1} and outward migration when B_{\phi} decreases as r^{-2}. These results are in agreement with predictions from the linear analysis. Taken as a whole, our results confirm that even a subthermal stable field can stop inward migration of an earth--like planet., Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, accepted in MNRAS. A version with full resolution, colour figures is available at http://www.maths.qmul.ac.uk/~rpn/preprints/

We study the migration of solid bodies in turbulent protoplanetary accretion discs by means of global MHD simulations. The bodies range in size from 5 centimetres up to 1 metre, and so include objects whose migration is expected to be the most rapid due to gas drag interaction with the disc. As they drift inward through the disc, some of them are trapped in regions where gas pressure maxima are created by long lived anticyclonic vortices. This accumulation is very efficient, locally increasing the dust--to--gas ratio by a factor > 100 in some cases. We discuss the possible implications of this result for theories of planet formation., 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted in MNRAS. A version with full resolution, colour figures is available at http://www.maths.qmul.ac.uk/~rpn/preprints/

Discs are a key element in star and planet formation; however, magnetic fields can efficiently transport angular momentum away from the central region of the collapsing core during the dense core collapse, preventing disc formation. We perform numerical simulations of magnetically supercritical collapsing cores with a misalignment between the rotation axis and the magnetic field (Joos et al. 2012) and in a turbulent environment (Joos et al. 2013). The early formation of massive discs can take place at moderate magnetic intensities if the rotation axis is tilted or in a turbulent environment, because of misalignment and turbulent diffusion.

In protoplanetary disks, the inner boundary between an MRI active and inactive region has recently been suggested to be a promising site for planet formation. A set of numerical simulations has indeed shown that vortex formation mediated by the Rossby wave instability is a natural consequence of the disk dynamics at that location. However, such models have so far considered only the case of an isothermal equation of state, while the complex thermodynamics is at the heart of how this region works. Using the Godunov code Ramses, we have performed 3D global numerical simulations of protoplanetary disks that relax the isothermal hypothesis. We find that, at the interface, the disk thermodynamics and the turbulent dynamics are intimately entwined, because of the importance of turbulent dissipation and thermal ionisation.