Growing hydrodynamic modes in Keplerian accretion disks during secondary perturbations: Elliptical vortex effects

The origin of hydrodynamic turbulence, and in particular of an anomalously enhanced angular momentum transport, in accretion disks is still an unsolved problem. This is especially important for cold disk systems which are practically neutral in charge and therefore turbulence can not be of magnetohydrodynamic origin. While the flow must exhibit some instability and then turbulence in support of the transfer of mass inward and angular momentum outward, according to the linear perturbation theory, in absence of magnetohydrodynamic effects, it should always be stable. We demonstrate that the three-dimensional secondary disturbance to the primarily perturbed disk, consisting of elliptical vortices, gives significantly large hydrodynamic growth in such a system and hence may suggest a transition to an ultimately turbulent state. This result is essentially applicable to accretion disks around quiescent cataclysmic variables, in proto-planetary and star-forming disks, the outer region of disks in active galactic nuclei, where the gas is significantly cold and thus the magnetic Reynolds number is smaller than 10. Subject headings: accretion, accretion disks — hydrodynamics — turbulence — instabilities