Magnetically channelled accretion

In magnetically channelled accretion, a strong magnetic field guides an accretion flow along flux tubes. The component of the Lorentz force density parallel to the magnetic field vanishes, so the longitudinal flow can be treated hydrodynamically while the field controls the transverse geometry. A magnetic dipole field near a neutron star channels matter toward small polar caps.

An accretion column carries an inward accretion flow onto a localized region of a star. In the strong-field slender approximation, the magnetic field controls the flux-tube area while longitudinal pressure and gravity determine acceleration. The signed outward-coordinate velocity is negative; the inward speed and mass accretion rate are usually defined positive.

If both luminosity and spin-up torque are supplied by the same steady mass inflow, $L=GM\dot{M}/R$ and $N=\dot{M}\sqrt{GM{r}_m}$ imply $r_m=N^{2}GM/(L^2{R}^2)$. A model requiring $r_m<R$ cannot describe an exterior magnetosphere. Beaming, opposing magnetic torque, outflows and a different radiative efficiency change this inference and must be made explicit.

The spin at which the net material and magnetic torque on an accreting star vanishes. The corotation radius is typically comparable to the magnetospheric truncation radius, but the precise torque balance depends on the coupling and any outflow.

With magnetic spin equilibrium at the magnetospheric truncation radius, $T\propto R_M^{3/2}{M}^{-1/2}\propto B_{\ast }^{6/7}{R}_{\ast }^{18/7}{\dot{M}}^{-3/7}$ at fixed mass. Inserting the surface accretion Eddington rate changes the radius power to $15/7$. The relation assumes the boundary remains outside the star; very weak fields instead encounter surface-accretion and mass-shedding limits.

A rapidly spinning magnetosphere adds angular momentum to inflowing matter outside the corotation radius, inhibiting accretion and potentially ejecting gas. The centrifugal onset condition does not by itself ensure that every parcel escapes to infinity.

The inner radius at which a stellar magnetic dipole field disrupts a surrounding accretion disk. In a free fall pressure-balance estimate with fixed aspect ratio $ϵ=H/r$, $r_m\sim ({ϵ}^2{\mu }^4/(GM{\dot{M}}^2){)}^{1/7}$. Geometry and inflow structure change its numerical coefficient.

The accretion Alfvén radius estimates where the magnetic stress of an accreting star competes with inflow stress and disrupts an approximately Keplerian disk. It is distinct from the Alfvén critical radius of an outgoing stellar wind. A dipole and a free-fall pressure estimate give the characteristic $B_{\ast }^{4/7}{\dot{M}}^{-2/7}$ scaling; the numerical coefficient depends on flow geometry, and an inferred radius inside the star is outside the model's domain.

A dipole's magnetic pressure scales as $B_{\ast }^2{R}_{\ast }^6/({\mu }_0{r}^6)$. Spherical free fall with $\rho =\dot{M}/(4\pi r^{2}v)$ and $v\propto (GM/r{)}^{1/2}$ has ram pressure proportional to $\dot{M}(GM{)}^{1/2}{r}^{-5/2}$. Equating them gives the seventh-root scaling. Disc geometry changes the coefficient; the estimate ceases to describe an exterior magnetosphere if the resulting radius lies inside the star.

The dipolar flux-tube area has $A(r)=A_{\star }(r/R_{\star }{)}^3$. Applying transonic accretion in a power-law tube with $n=3$ and a polytropic equation of state givesHere $c_0$ and ${\rho }_0$ are the reservoir sound speed and mass density, and $c_s$ is the sound speed at the sonic point. The mass accretion rate isFor two equal polar caps of surface angular radius ${\theta }_{\star }\ll 1$, $A_{\star }\simeq 2\pi R_{\star }^2{\theta }_{\star }^2$. One loaded cap gives half the total rate. The finite-radius transonic branch exists for $1<\gamma <7/5$, must cross outside the star ($r_s>R_{\star }$), and requires ${\theta }_{\star }^2{r}_s/R_{\star }\ll 1$ for the sonic region to remain a narrow flux tube.

A narrow dipolar flux-tube area $A(z)\propto z^3$ gives $A\rho v=\dot{M}$ for inward speed $v>0$. The isothermal magnetic Bernoulli integral in $\Phi =-GM/z$ then gives $(v-c_s^2/v)v\prime =3c_s^2/z-GM/z^2$. A smooth transonic branch crosses at $z_s=GM/(3c_s^2)$ with $v_s=c_s$, ${\rho }_s=e^{5/2}{\rho }_{\infty }$ and $\dot{M}={\rho }_s{c}_{s}A(z_s)$. The crossing must lie in the domain; subsonic branches need not attain it.

For transonic accretion in a dipolar flux tube, the Bernoulli equation at the sonic point contains $c_s^2[1/(\gamma -1)-5/2]$. A positive reservoir energy requires $\gamma <7/5$. Compression in the $r^3$ dipolar flux-tube area raises the specific enthalpy more rapidly than in the $r^2$ geometry of spherical Bondi accretion, whose corresponding upper index is $5/3$.