Global simulations of magnetorotational turbulence-III. Influence of field configuration and mass injection

Abstract

The stresses produced by magnetorotational turbulence can provide effective angular momentum transport in accretion discs. However, questions remain about the ability of simulated discs to reproduce observationally inferred stress-to-gas-pressure ratios. In this paper, we present a set of high-resolution global magnetohydrodynamic disc simulations which are initialized with different field configurations: purely toroidal, vertical field lines, and nested poloidal loops. A mass source term is included which allows the total disc mass to equilibrate in simulations with long run times, and also enables the impact of rapid mass injection to be explored. Notably different levels of angular momentum transport are observed during the early-time transient disc evolution. However, given sufficient time to relax, the different models evolve to a statistically similar quasi-steady state with a stress-to-gas-pressure ratio, (αP)~0.032-0.036. Such behaviour is anticipated based on consideration of mean magnetic field evolution subject to our adopted simulation boundary conditions. The indication from our results is that steady, isolated discs may be unable to maintain a large-scale magnetic field or produce values for the stress-to-gas-pressure ratio implied by some observations. Supplementary simulations exploring the influence of trapping magnetic field, injecting vertical field, and rapidly injecting additional mass into the disc show that large stresses can be induced by these mechanisms. In the first instance, a highly magnetized disc is produced with (αP)~0.21, whereas the latter cases lead to a transient burst of accretion with a peak (αP)≃0.1-0.25. As a whole, the simulations highlight the common late-time evolution and characteristics of turbulent discs for which the magnetic field is allowed to evolve freely (i.e. without constraint/replenishment). In contrast, if the boundaries of the disc, the rate of injection of magnetic field, or the rate of mass replenishment are modified to mimic astrophysical discs, markedly different disc evolution occurs. Show more