Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Nonlinear growth of the Parker instability (PI) and the Balbus & Hawley instability (BHI) in accretion disks have been studied by local three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations. In high-β disks (β = Pgas/Pmag > 1), the PI has only minor effects on the saturation level of BHI. In low β disks (β ≤ 1), the disk stays in a low-β state because magnetic flux cannot escape fast enough to convert the disk into a high-β state. We found that even in low-β disk the BHI generates fluctuating magnetic fields. The effective magnetic viscosity αB(= –⟨BrBΦ/4πP0⟩) is O(0.1) when β ~ 1.