Chaos in Turbulence Driven by the Magnetorotational Instability
Chaotic flow is studied in a series of numerical magnetohydrodynamical simulations that use the shearing box formalism. This mimics important features of local accretion disk dynamics. The magnetorotational instability gives rise to flow turbulence, and quantitative chaos parameters, such as the lar...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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2003
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| _version_ | 1826292862561550336 |
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| author | Winters, W Balbus, S Hawley, J |
| author_facet | Winters, W Balbus, S Hawley, J |
| author_sort | Winters, W |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Chaotic flow is studied in a series of numerical magnetohydrodynamical simulations that use the shearing box formalism. This mimics important features of local accretion disk dynamics. The magnetorotational instability gives rise to flow turbulence, and quantitative chaos parameters, such as the largest Lyapunov exponent, can be measured. Linear growth rates appear in these exponents even when the flow is fully turbulent. The extreme sensitivity to initial conditions associated with chaotic flows has practical implications, the most important of which is that hundreds of orbital times are needed to extract a meaningful average for the stress. If the evolution time in a disk is less than this, the classical $\alpha$ formalism will break down. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:21:14Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:b781c07c-4adc-4898-998e-6b176f474a59 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:21:14Z |
| publishDate | 2003 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:b781c07c-4adc-4898-998e-6b176f474a592022-03-27T04:49:06ZChaos in Turbulence Driven by the Magnetorotational InstabilityJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:b781c07c-4adc-4898-998e-6b176f474a59EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2003Winters, WBalbus, SHawley, JChaotic flow is studied in a series of numerical magnetohydrodynamical simulations that use the shearing box formalism. This mimics important features of local accretion disk dynamics. The magnetorotational instability gives rise to flow turbulence, and quantitative chaos parameters, such as the largest Lyapunov exponent, can be measured. Linear growth rates appear in these exponents even when the flow is fully turbulent. The extreme sensitivity to initial conditions associated with chaotic flows has practical implications, the most important of which is that hundreds of orbital times are needed to extract a meaningful average for the stress. If the evolution time in a disk is less than this, the classical $\alpha$ formalism will break down. |
| spellingShingle | Winters, W Balbus, S Hawley, J Chaos in Turbulence Driven by the Magnetorotational Instability |
| title | Chaos in Turbulence Driven by the Magnetorotational Instability |
| title_full | Chaos in Turbulence Driven by the Magnetorotational Instability |
| title_fullStr | Chaos in Turbulence Driven by the Magnetorotational Instability |
| title_full_unstemmed | Chaos in Turbulence Driven by the Magnetorotational Instability |
| title_short | Chaos in Turbulence Driven by the Magnetorotational Instability |
| title_sort | chaos in turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT wintersw chaosinturbulencedrivenbythemagnetorotationalinstability AT balbuss chaosinturbulencedrivenbythemagnetorotationalinstability AT hawleyj chaosinturbulencedrivenbythemagnetorotationalinstability |