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Location of the Inner Edges of Astrophysical Discs Related to the Central Object

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Multi-scale Dynamical Processes in Space and Astrophysical Plasmas

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings ((ASSSP,volume 33))

Abstract

The accreting ionized gas surrounding a neutron star or white dwarf creates an accretion disc. Radius R A (the Alfven radius), where the magnetic energy density is equal to the kinetic energy density is an inner boundary of a disc. Accretion disc in a binary system and around a black hole is disrupted at a radius R A . The heliospheric current sheet’s inner edge is also located at the solar Alfven radius. The inner edges of the Jupiter and Saturn discs are located close to their Alfven radii determined by the plasma azimuthal velocities. Due to the star-exoplanet interaction, a magnetosphere with a magnetodisc arises around the magnetized extrasolar planet placed in close orbit about the host star (“Hot Jupiter”). The distance to disc’s inner edge from the center of the host star is a key parameter of the exoplanet magnetospheric model. It determines the disc’s magnetic moment, and as a consequence, the total magnetospheric magnetic field and the character size of the magnetosphere. Here we discuss the exoplanet’s disc inner edge location at R A in a context of other astrophysical discs and emphasize that for definite parameters (existence of a strong magnetic field, for example) a lot of them also have location of their inner edges at the Alfven radii independent of nature of their origin, of the disc’s material, and of the motion direction in the disc, which means that a large class of discs is well described by the MHD theory.

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Acknowledgements

Work at the Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University was supported by the RFBR Grants No 11-05-00894 and 09-05-00798. The authors are thankful to EU FP7 projects EUROPLANET/JRA3 and IMPEX for support of their collaboration. This work was partially supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) within the project P21197-N16.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    Elena S. Belenkaya & Igor I. Alexeev

  2. Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, A-8042, Graz, Austria

    Maxim L. Khodachenko

Authors
  1. Elena S. Belenkaya
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  2. Igor I. Alexeev
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  3. Maxim L. Khodachenko
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Correspondence to Elena S. Belenkaya .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Inst. of Astro- and Particle Physics, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25, Innsbruck, 6020, Austria

    Manfred P. Leubner

  2. , Inst. of Astro- and Particle Physics, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25, Innsbruck, 6020, Austria

    Zoltán Vörös

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Belenkaya, E.S., Alexeev, I.I., Khodachenko, M.L. (2012). Location of the Inner Edges of Astrophysical Discs Related to the Central Object. In: Leubner, M., Vörös, Z. (eds) Multi-scale Dynamical Processes in Space and Astrophysical Plasmas. Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, vol 33. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30442-2_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30442-2_24

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