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A Modal Analysis of the Irradiation Instability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2014

Jeffrey Fung
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, CanadaM5S3H4 email: fung@astro.utoronto.ca
Pawel Artymowicz
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, CanadaM5S3H4 email: fung@astro.utoronto.ca Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto at Scarborough, 265 Military Trail, Scarborough, Ontario, CanadaM1C1A4 email: pawel@utsc.utoronto.ca
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Abstract

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The irradiation instability is a disk instability caused by the radiation pressure cast by a central source onto an optically thick disk. The criterion for this instability depends on a sharp transition from an optically thin inner disk to an optically thick outer disk. The quickly diminishing radiation pressure in this transition region creates a radially compressing effect, which is in many ways similar to the effects of self-gravity. In this modal analysis, we demonstrate that a disk marginally stable to irradiation can develop global modes, with growth rates being of order the dynamical timescale of the disk. The non-linear evolution of the our model shows the formation of vortices near the transition region and spiral structures propagating into the optically thick region. Consequently the scale-height of our disk's inner edge becomes time-variable and can likely be observed as a variation in its infrared flux.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2013 

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