{
  "abstract": "Circumplanetary disks are open, dynamic systems sustained by a meridional circulation that draws gas and dust from the parent nebula along nearly polar streamlines, and ultimately returns some of this material through a viscously driven, in-plane outflow. In such a disk, the water ice line acts as a site of solid-mass accumulation: inward-drifting icy solids sublimate interior to the ice line, the resulting vapor is advected outward by the gas, and recondensation beyond the ice line resets the material to a small Stokes number. The operation of this drift-mediated loop requires the fragmentation-limited Stokes number of the mass-dominant icy aggregates to exceed the equilibrium Stokes number at which the radial drift of solids reverses. Because the former scales inversely with the Shakura-Sunyaev viscosity parameter $α$ while the latter is directly proportional to it, this requirement yields a compact upper bound on the vigor of turbulence in the satellite-forming region. Adopting an actively heated, steady-state circumjovian disk truncated at the tidal radius, we find a marginal bound of $α\\lesssim 10^{-3}$ for an icy-particle fragmentation threshold of $v_f\\simeq1\\,{\\rm m\\,s^{-1}}$ - appropriate for cold ice with sticking properties similar to silicate dust. This bound scales linearly with $v_f$, reaching $α\\lesssim5\\times10^{-3}$ for more adhesive, warm ice ($v_f\\simeq5\\,{\\rm m\\,s^{-1}}$). The bound carries no explicit dependence on the disk's mass flux, and is set entirely by the local thermal state, pressure gradient, and geometry of the circumjovian nebula.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.00458",
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Konstantin Batygin"
    },
    {
      "name": "Fred C. Adams"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2ch8cc1c42fm7.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.00458",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "2ch8cc1c42fm7",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00458",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.EP"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.00458",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-01",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2ch8cc1c42fm7.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:00Z",
      "native_id": "2609.00458",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00458"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.EP",
      "subfield": "planetary"
    }
  ],
  "title": "An Upper Limit on Turbulent Viscosity in the Circumjovian Nebula",
  "title_text": "An Upper Limit on Turbulent Viscosity in the Circumjovian Nebula",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:00Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2ch8cc1c42fm7",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}