Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in warped accretion discs

Abstract

Warped, precessing accretion discs appear in a range of astrophysical systems, for instance the X-ray binary Her X-1 and in the active nucleus of NGC4258. In a warped accretion disc there are horizontal pressure gradients that drive an epicyclic motion. We have studied the interaction of this epicyclic motion with the magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in numerical simulations. We find that the turbulent stress acting on the epicyclic motion is comparable in size to the stress that drives the accretion, however an important ingredient in the damping of the epicyclic motion is its parametric decay into inertial waves.

to appear in the proceedings of the 20th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics, J. C. Wheeler & H. Martel (eds.)