Magnetic activity in accretion disc boundary layers

Abstract

We use three dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations to study the structure of the boundary layer between an accretion disc and a non-rotating, unmagnetized star. Under the assumption that cooling is efficient, we obtain a narrow but highly variable transition region in which the radial velocity is only a small fraction of the sound speed. A large fraction of the energy dissipation occurs in high density gas adjacent to the hydrostatic stellar envelope, and may therefore be reprocessed and largely hidden from view of the observer. As suggested by Pringle (1989), the magnetic field energy in the boundary layer is strongly amplified by shear, and exceeds that in the disc by an order of magnitude. These fields may play a role in generating the magnetic activity, X-ray emission, and outflows in disc systems where the accretion rate is high enough to overwhelm the stellar magnetosphere.