Backflow in simulated MHD accretion disks

Ruchi Mishra, Miljenko Čemeljić, Wlodek Kluźniak

We perform resistive MHD simulations of accretion disk with alpha-viscosity, accreting onto a rotating star endowed with a magnetic dipole. We find backflow in the presence of strong magnetic field and large resistivity, and probe for the dependence on Prandtl number. We find that in the magnetic case the distance from the star at which backflow begins, the stagnation radius, is different than in the hydrodynamic case, and the backflow shows non-stationary behavior. We compare the results with hydrodynamics simulations.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.13194