2023/10/31 by Jonatan Jacquemin-Ide, Jacquemin-Ide, Jonatan, F. Rincon +5 · 7 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2311.00034
openalex publication_date 2023/10/31 · openalex created_date 2023/11/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Jetted astrophysical phenomena with black hole (BH) engines, including binary mergers, jetted tidal disruption events, and X-ray binaries, require a large-scale vertical magnetic field for efficient jet formation. However, a dynamo mechanism that could generate these crucial large-scale magnetic fields has not been identified and characterized. We have employed 3D global general relativistic magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of accretion disks to quantify, for the first time, a dynamo mechanism that generates large-scale magnetic fields. This dynamo mechanism primarily arises from the nonlinear evolution of the magnetorotational instability (MRI). In this mechanism, large non-axisymmetric MRI-amplified shearing wave modes, mediated by the axisymmetric azimuthal magnetic field, generate and sustain the large-scale vertical magnetic field through their nonlinear interactions. We identify the advection of magnetic loops as a crucial feature, transporting the large-scale vertical magnetic field from the outer regions to the inner regions of the accretion disk. This leads to a larger characteristic size of the, now advected, magnetic field when compared to the local disk height. We characterize the complete dynamo mechanism with two timescales: one for the local magnetic field generation, t\rm g, and one for the large-scale scale advection, t\rm adv. Whereas the dynamo we describe is nonlinear, we explore the potential of linear mean field models to replicate its core features. Our findings indicate that traditional α-dynamo models, often computed in stratified shearing box simulations, are inadequate and that the effective large-scale dynamics is better described by the shear current effects or stochastic α-dynamos.