Negative Reynolds stress generation by accretion disc convection

Abstract

The phenomenon of negative viscosity-alpha in convectively unstable Keplerian accretion discs is discussed. The convection is considered as a random flow with an axisymmetric mesoscale pattern. Its correlation tensor is computed with a time-averaging procedure using Kley's 2D hydrocode. There is a distinct anisotropy between the turbulence intensities in the radial and azimuthal directions, i.e. the radial velocity rms dominates the azimuthal one. As a consequence, an extra term in the expression for the turbulent transport of angular momentum appears which does not vanish for rigid rotation (‘Λ-effect’). It is negative (‘inwards transport’) and even seems to dominate the positive contribution of the eddy viscosity representing outwards transport of angular momentum. For a turbulence model close to that of the mixing-length theory, the rotational influence on the anisotropy of the turbulence intensities, , and the covariance 〈u′Ru′〉– representing the angular momentum transport – is computed and compared with the accretion disc simulations. Indeed, the negative angular momentum transport can be explained with the observed dominance of the radial turbulence intensity. If, on the other hand, in turbulence fields the azimuthal intensity would dominate or the turbulence is even isotropic, then we always find a positive transport of the angular momentum.