Magneto-rotational Instability and Particle Acceleration in Collisionless Accretion Disk

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25287151
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Plasma science
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Hoshino Masahiro 東京大学, 理学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (90241257)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 降着円盤 / 磁気回転不安定 / 磁気リコネクション / 粒子シミュレーション / 粒子加速 / 角運動量輸送 / 宇宙物理 / ブラックホール

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Accretion disk is a ubiquitous structure in universe, and it is known that a huge gravitational energy can be released during the gas accretion into the central object. So far the magneto-rotational instability (MRI) is known to play a significant role on the gas accretion mechanism through a magneto-hydro-dynamic (MHD) wave. However, accretion disks with massive central objects such as black holes are believed to be in collisionless plasma state, and MHD approximation should break down. In our research project, we performed a large-scale computer simulation with electromagnetic particle-in-cell code, and found that the accretion rate can be enhanced more than 10 times than the standard MHD accretion disk. Furthermore, we found that high energy particles can be efficiently generated.

Free Research Field

宇宙惑星プラズマ物理学