Magnetized Accretion Disks and the Origin of Bipolar Outflows

Abstract

AbstractCentrifugally driven winds from the surfaces of magnetized accretion disks are an attractive mechanism for removing the angular momentum of the accreted matter and of producing bipolar outflows and jets in compact astronomical objects. In this contribution, I first review steady–state disk–wind models that have been constructed for the different density regimes of circumstellar disks and comment on their expected stability. I then consider several nonsteady effects, including disk formation in molecular cloud-core collapse, magnetic flux transport through the disk, and the role of magnetic fields in the FU Orionis outburst phenomenon. I conclude with a discussion of some of the unique observational properties of disk-driven outflows in young stellar objects and in active galactic nuclei. These characteristics are a consequence of the highly stratified density and velocity structures of centrifugally driven outflows, their large momentum discharges (which result in the efficient uplifting of dust from the disk), and, in the case of molecular disks around lowluminosity objects, their comparatively low initial degrees of ionization (which can lead to rapid heating by ambipolar diffusion).