Hybrid viscosity and magnetoviscous instability in hot, collisionless accretion disks

Abstract

We aim to illustrate the role of hot protons in enhancing the magnetorotational instability (MRI) via the “hybrid” viscosity, which is due to the redirection of protons interacting with static magnetic field perturbations, and to establish that it is the only relevant mechanism in this situation. It has recently been shown by Balbus [1] and Islam & Balbus [11] using a fluid approach that viscous momentum transport is key to the development of the MRI in accretion disks for a wide range of parameters. However, their results do not apply in hot, advection-dominated disks, which are collisionless. We develop a fluid picture using the hybrid viscosity mechanism, that applies in the collisionless limit. We demonstrate that viscous effects arising from this mechanism can significantly enhance the growth of the MRI as long as the plasma β≳80. Our results facilitate for the first time a direct comparison between the MHD and quasi-kinetic treatments of the magnetoviscous instability in hot, collisionless disks.