The subcritical baroclinic instability in local accretion disc models

Abstract

Context. The presence of vortices in accretion discs has been debated for more than a decade. Baroclinic instabilities might be a way to generate these vortices in the presence of a radial entropy gradient. However, the nature of these instabilities is still unclear and 3D parametric instabilities can lead to the rapid destruction of these vortices. Aims. We present new results exhibiting a subcritical baroclinic instability (SBI) in local shearing box models. We describe the 2D and 3D behaviour of this instability using numerical simulations and we present a simple analytical model describing the underlying physical process. Methods. We investigate the SBI in local shearing boxes, using either the incompressible Boussinesq approximation or a fully compressible model. We explore the parameter space varying several local dimensionless parameters and we isolate the regime relevant for the SBI. 3D shearing boxes are also investigated using high resolution spectral methods to resolve both the SBI and 3D parametric instabilities.