3 research outputs found
Excitation of Trapped Waves in Simulations of Tilted Black Hole Accretion Disks with Magnetorotational Turbulence
We analyze the time dependence of fluid variables in general relativistic,
magnetohydrodynamic simulations of accretion flows onto a black hole with
dimensionless spin parameter a/M=0.9. We consider both the case where the
angular momentum of the accretion material is aligned with the black hole spin
axis (an untilted flow) and where it is misaligned by 15 degrees (a tilted
flow). In comparison to the untilted simulation, the tilted simulation exhibits
a clear excess of inertial variability, that is, variability at frequencies
below the local radial epicyclic frequency. We further study the radial
structure of this inertial-like power by focusing on a radially extended band
at 118 (M/10Msol)^-1 Hz found in each of the three analyzed fluid variables.
The three dimensional density structure at this frequency suggests that the
power is a composite oscillation whose dominant components are an over dense
clump corotating with the background flow, a low order inertial wave, and a low
order inertial-acoustic wave. Our results provide preliminary confirmation of
earlier suggestions that disk tilt can be an important excitation mechanism for
inertial waves.Comment: 8 Pages, 6 Figures, accepted for publication in Ap