Turbulent Mixing and the Dead Zone in Protostellar Disks

Abstract

We investigate the conditions for the presence of a magnetically inactive dead zone in protostellar disks using three-dimensional shearing-box MHD calculations, including vertical stratification, ohmic resistivity, and time-dependent ionization chemistry. Activity driven by the magneto-rotational instability fills the whole thickness of the disk at 5 AU, provided cosmic-ray ionization is present, small grains are absent, and the gas-phase metal abundance is sufficiently high. At 1 AU, the larger column density of 1700 g cm-2 means the midplane is shielded from ionizing particles and remains magneto-rotationally stable, even under the most favorable conditions considered. Nevertheless, the dead zone is effectively eliminated. Turbulence mixes free charges into the interior as they recombine, leading to a slight coupling of the midplane gas to the magnetic fields. Weak, large-scale radial fields diffuse to the midplane, where they are sheared out to produce stronger azimuthal fields. On average, the resulting midplane accretion stresses are just a few times less than in the surface layers. © 2007. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.