Department or Program

Physics and Astronomy

Abstract

The magnetorotational instability (MRI) plays a pivotal role in the dynamics of protoplanetary disks and the accretion processes near black holes in galactic nuclei. MRI drives turbulence that transports density, heat, and angular momentum in the accretion disk. In ideal MRI, each unstable mode has a corresponding conjugate stable mode with a similar absolute value of the growth rate. This thesis investigates local magnetorotational turbulence in a shearing box with a uniform magnetic field through 3D incompressible magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Utilizing the Dedalus framework, we formulate an eigenvalue problem for MRI, and found the fastest-growing mode and its conjugate stable mode, along with their mode structures. We observed that in the linear growth phase, the most unstable mode dominated the state vectors of the MRI simulation. Using eigenmode projection, we found that in the turbulence phase, stable modes are excited and contribute to the turbulence of MRI.

Level of Access

Open Access

First Advisor

Oishi, Jeffrey

Date of Graduation

5-2024

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Number of Pages

32

Components of Thesis

1 pdf file

Download

Open Access

Available to all.

Share

COinS