First Accretion Disk

Astrophysicists in the NC State Physics Department perform extensive calculations in their modeling of the cosmos. Professor John Blondin, for example, has developed a hydrodynamics code that he and his students use to calculate and image a variety of astrophysical phenomena.

Professor Blondin's student, Ph.D. candidate Michael Owen, recently performed a calculation that generated the first high-resolution three dimensional image of an accretion disk. While previous researchers have simulated the fluid dynamics of accretion disks in close binary star systems in 2D others have attempted small 3D simulations that lacked the spatial resolution necessary to see the vertical structure of the normally thin disks.

The image shown here, computed on an IBM SP at the North Carolina Supercomputing Center, is the first high-resolution 3D simulation revealing the vertical structure of an accretion disk around a compact star in a close binary system. Preliminary results are exciting, including the discovery of non-linear vertical modes that act to "smear out" the strong spiral shock waves within the disk, predicted by theory and 2D simulations, but rarely observed in actual disks.