The outflows accelerated by the magnetic fields and radiation force of accretion disks

The inner region of a luminous accretion disk is radiation pressure dominated. We estimate the surface temperature of a radiation pressure dominated accretion disk, \Theta=(c_s/r\Omega_K)^2<<(H/r)^2, which is significantly lower than that of a gas pressure dominated disk, \Theta (H/r)^2. This means that the outflow can be launched magnetically from the photosphere of the radiation pressure dominate disk only if the effective potential barrier along the magnetic field line is extremely shallow or no potential barrier is present. For the latter case, the slow sonic point in the outflow may probably be in the disk, which leads to a slow circular dense flow above the disk. This implies that hot gas (probably in the corona) is necessary for launching a jet from the radiation pressure dominated disk, which provides a natural explanation on the observational evidence that the relativistic jets are related to hot plasma in some X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei. We investigate the outflows accelerated from the hot corona above the disk by the magnetic field and radiation force of the accretion disk. We find that, with the help of the radiation force, the mass loss rate in the outflow is high, which leads to a slow outflow. This may be the reason why the jets in radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert galaxies are in general mild relativistic compared with those in blazars.Comment: 8 pages, accepted by ApJ, references update

The jet power extracted from a magnetized accretion disc

We consider the power of a relativistic jet accelerated by the magnetic field of an accretion disc. It is found that the power extracted from the disc is mainly determined by the field strength and configuration of the field far from the disc. Comparing with the power extracted from a rotating black hole, we find that the jet power extracted from a disc can dominate over that from the rotating black hole. But in some cases, the jet power extracted from a rapidly rotating hole can be more important than that from the disc even if the poloidal field threading the hole is not significantly larger than that threading the inner edge of the disc. The results imply that the radio-loudness of quasars may be governed by its accretion rate which might be regulated by the central black hole mass. It is proposed that the different disc field generation mechanisms might be tested against observations of radio-loud quasars if their black hole masses are available.Comment: 6 pages, accepted for publication in MNRA

On the disappearance of broad-line region in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei: the role of the outflows from advection dominated accretion flows

The broad-line region (BLR) disappears in many low-luminosity AGNs, the reason of which is still controversial. The BLRs in AGNs are believed to be associated with the outflows from the accretion disks. Most of the low-luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs) contain advection dominated accretion flows (ADAFs), which are very hot and have a positive Bernoulli parameter. ADAFs are therefore associated with strong outflows. We estimate the cooling of the outflows from the ADAFs, and find that the gases in such hot outflows always cannot be cooled efficiently by bremsstrahlung radiation. The ADAF may co-exist with the standard disk, i.e., the inner ADAF connects to the outer thin accretion disk at radius R_tr, in the sources accreting at slightly lower than the critical rate. For the ADAFs with >0.001 L_edd, a secondary small inner cold disk is suggested to co-exist with the ADAF due to the condensation process. We estimate the Compton cooling of the outflow, of which the soft seed photons either come from the outer cold disk or the secondary inner cold disk. It is found that the gas in the outflow far from the ADAF may be efficiently cooled to form BLR clouds due to the soft seed photons emitted from the cold disks, provided the transition radius of the ADAF to the outer cold disk is small or/and the secondary small cold disk has a luminosity >0.003L_edd. The BLR clouds can still be formed in the outflows from the outer cold thin disks, if the transition radius is not very large. For the sources with <0.001L_edd, the inner small cold disk is evaporated completely in the ADAF and outer thin accretion disk may be suppressed by the ADAF, which leads to the disappearance of the BLR. The physical implications of this scenario on the double-peaked broad-line emitters are also discussed.Comment: 6 pages, accepted by Ap

Dynamical behaviour of the `beads' along the magnetic field lines near a rotating black hole

The elements of the cold magnetic driven flows behave like beads on the magnetic field line. The inclination of the field lines at the surface of the disc plays a crucial role on the nature of the magnetically driven outflow. For the non-relativistic case, a centrifugally driven outflow of matter from the disc is possible, if the poloidal component of the magnetic field makes an angle of less than a critical 60 degrees with the disc surface. The collimated flows ejected from active galactic nuclei may probably start from the region near the black hole. We investigate the dynamical behavior of the 'beads' on the magnetic field line start from the disc near a black hole. It is found that the critical angle becomes larger than 60 degrees for the rotating black hole case (close to 90 degrees for a=1), which may imply that the flows are easy accelerated in the inner edge of the disk surrounding a rotating black hole

On the radio dichotomy of active galactic nuclei

It is still a mystery why only a small fraction of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) contain relativistic jets. Strong magnetic field is a necessary ingredient for jet formation, however, the advection of the external field in a geometrically thin disk is inefficient. The gas with a small angular velocity may fall from the Bondi radius $R_{\rm B}$ nearly freely to the circularization radius $R_{\rm c}$, and a thin accretion disk is formed within $R_{\rm c}$. We suggest that the external magnetic field is substantially enhanced in this region, and the magnetic field at $R_{\rm c}$ can be sufficiently strong to drive outflows from the disk if the angular velocity of the gas is low at $R_{\rm B}$. The magnetic field is efficiently dragged in the disk, because most angular momentum of the disk is removed by the outflows that leads to a significantly high radial velocity. The strong magnetic field formed in this way may accelerate jets in the region near the black hole either by the Blandford-Payne or/and Blandford-Znajek mechanisms. We suggest that the radio dichotomy of AGNs predominantly originates from the angular velocity of the circumnuclear gas. An AGN will appear as a radio-loud (RL) one if the angular velocity of the circumnuclear gas is lower than a critical value at the Bondi radius, otherwise, it will appear as a radio-quiet (RQ) AGN. This is supported by the observations that RL nuclei are invariably hosted by core galaxies. Our model suggests that the mass growth of the black holes in RL quasars is much faster than that in RQ quasars with the same luminosity, which is consistent with the fact that the massive black holes in RL quasars are systematically a few times heavier than those in their RQ counterparts.Comment: accepted by ApJ, references update

The large scale magnetic fields of advection dominated accretion flows

We calculate the advection/diffusion of the large-scale magnetic field threading an ADAF, and find that the magnetic field can be dragged inward by the accretion flow efficiently, if the magnetic Prandtl number P~1. This is due to the large radial velocity of the ADAF. It is found that the magnetic pressure can be as high as ~50% of the gas pressure in the inner region of the ADAF close to the black hole horizon, even if the external imposed vertical field strength is <5% of the gas pressure at the outer radius of the ADAF, which is caused by the gas plunging rapidly to the black hole within the marginal stable circular orbit. In the inner region of the ADAF, the flow is significantly pressured in the vertical direction by the magnetic field, and therefore its gas pressure can be two orders of magnitude higher than that in the ADAF without magnetic fields. This means that the magnetic field strength near the black hole is underestimated by assuming equipartition between magnetic and gas pressure with the conventional ADAF model. Our results show that the magnetic field strength of the flow near the black hole horizon can be more than one order of magnitude higher than that in the ADAF at 6GM/c^2, which implies the Blandford-Znajek mechanism could be more important than the Blandford-Payne mechanism for ADAFs. We find that the accretion flow is decelerated near the black hole by the magnetic field when the external imposed field is strong enough or the gas pressure of the flow is low at the outer radius, or both. This corresponds to a critical accretion rate, below which the accretion flow will be arrested by the magnetic field near the black hole for a given external imposed field. In this case, the gas may accrete as magnetically confined blobs diffusing through field lines in the region very close to the black hole horizon, which is similar to those in compact stars.Comment: 11 pages, accepted by Ap

The relation between black hole masses and Lorentz factors of the jet components in blazars

We explore the relation between black hole mass ($M_{\rm BH}$) and the motion of the jet components for a sample of blazars. The Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) 2cm Survey and its continuation: Monitoring of Jets in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with VLBA Experiments (MOJAVE) have observed 278 radio-loud AGNs, of which 146 blazars have reliable measurements on their apparent velocities of jet components. We calculate the minimal Lorentz factors for these sources from their measured apparent velocities, and their black hole masses are estimated with their broad-line widths. A significant intrinsic correlation is found between black hole masses and the minimal Lorentz factors of the jet components, which the Eddington ratio is only weakly correlated with the minimal Lorentz factor, which may imply that the Blandford-Znajek (BZ) mechanism may dominate over the Blandford-Payne (BP) mechanism for the jet acceleration (at least) in blazars.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables, submitted to ChJA

The large-scale magnetic field of a thin accretion disk with outflows

The large-scale magnetic field threading an accretion disk plays an important role in launching jets/outflows. The field may probably be advected inwards by the plasma in the accretion disk from the ambient environment (interstellar medium or a companion star). It has been suggested that the external field can be efficiently dragged inwards in a thin disk with magnetic outflows. We construct a self-consistent global disk-outflow model, in which the large-scale field is formed by the advection of the external field in the disk. The outflows are accelerated by this field co-rotating with the disk, which carry away most angular momentum of the disk and make its structure significantly different from the conventional viscous disk structure. We find that the magnetic field strength in the inner region of the disk can be several orders of magnitude higher than the external field strength for a geometrically thin disk with $H/R \sim 0.1$, if the ratio of the gas to magnetic pressure $\beta_{\rm out} \sim 10^2$ at the outer edge of the disk. The outflow velocity shows layer-like structure, i.e., it decreases with radius where it is launched. The outflow can be accelerated up to $\sim 0.2-0.3$c from the inner region of the disk, and the mass loss rate in the outflows is $\sim 10 - 70\%$ of the mass accretion rate at the outer radius of the disk, which may account for the fast outflows observed in some active galactic nuclei (AGNs).Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap