2013MNRAS.431.3150J

The need of a minimum amount of ionization in protostellar accretion discs is necessary for the magnetorotational instability to take place. This instability is believed to be the mechanism responsible for a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence that could lead to the accretion observed. In this work, we study the role of MHD waves as a source of heating in discs. We analyse if Alfvén waves, when damped during their propagation through the disc, can transfer enough energy in order to raise its temperature. As the discs are composed of dust, we suggest here that the Alfvén waves are damped by the dust-cyclotron mechanism of damping. In this mechanism when charged dust particles acquire the same (cyclotron) frequency as the waves, a resonance occurs that leads to the damping of the waves. Here, we present a disc model with two heating mechanisms: the `anomalous' viscosity considered in terms of the α parametrization and the damping of Alfvén waves. We vary the space parameters in order to study the second mechanism's behaviour. We show that the waves can increase the temperature of the disc and flatten the traditional r3/4 effective temperature profile of the disc.