3,407 research outputs found
General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Black Hole Accretion Disks
Observations are providing increasingly detailed quantitative information
about the accretion flows that power such high energy systems as X-ray binaries
and active galactic nuclei. Analytic models of such systems must rely on
assumptions such as regular flow geometry and a simple, parameterized stress.
Global numerical simulations offer a way to investigate the basic physical
dynamics of accretion flows without these assumptions. For black hole accretion
studies one solves the equations of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics.
Magnetic fields are of fundamental importance to the structure and evolution of
accretion disks because magnetic turbulence is the source of the anomalous
stress that drives accretion. We have developed a three-dimensional general
relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulation code to evolve time-dependent
accretion systems self-consistently. Recent global simulations of black hole
accretion disks suggest that the generic structure of the accretion flow is
usefully divided into five regimes: the main disk, the inner disk, the corona,
the evacuated funnel, and the funnel wall jet. The properties of each of these
regions are summarized.Comment: invited review at the conference "Stellar-mass, Intermediate-mass,
and Supermassive Black Holes", held in Kyoto, Japan, Octorber 28-31, 2003, to
be published in Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplemen
Global General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Accretion Tori
This paper presents an initial survey of the properties of accretion flows in
the Kerr metric from three-dimensional, general relativistic
magnetohydrodynamic simulations of accretion tori. We consider three fiducial
models of tori around rotating, both prograde and retrograde, and nonrotating
black holes; these three fiducial models are also contrasted with axisymmetric
simulations and a pseudo-Newtonian simulation with equivalent initial
conditions to delineate the limitations of these approximations.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. 30 pages, 21 figures. Animations and
high-resolution version of figures available at
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~jd5
Global MHD Simulations of Cylindrical Keplerian Disks
This paper presents a series of global three dimensional accretion disk
simulations carried out in the cylindrical limit in which the vertical
component of the gravitational field is neglected. The simulations use a
cylindrical pseudo-Newtonian potential to model the main dynamical properties
of the Schwarzschild metric. The disks are initially constant density with a
Keplerian angular momentum distribution and contain a weak toroidal or vertical
field. These simulations reaffirm many of the conclusions of previous local
simulations. The magnetorotational instability grows rapidly and produces MHD
turbulence with a significant Maxwell stress which drives accretion.
Tightly-wrapped low- spiral waves are prominent. In some simulations radial
variations in Maxwell stress concentrate gas into rings, creating substantial
spatial inhomogeneities. There is a nonzero stress at the marginally stable
orbit which produces a small decline in specific angular momentum inside the
last stable orbit. Detailed comparisons between simulations are used to examine
the effects of computational domain and equation of state. Simulations that
begin with vertical fields have greater field amplification and higher ratios
of stress to magnetic pressure compared with those beginning with toroidal
fields. In contrast to MHD, hydrodynamics alone neither creates nor sustains
turbulence.Comment: Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Web version of paper and MPEG
animations can be found at http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~jh8h/cylinder
Electron Acceleration around the Supermassive Black Hole at the Galactic Center
The recent detection of variable infrared emission from Sagittarius A*,
combined with its previously observed flare activity in X-rays, provides
compelling evidence that at least a portion of this object's emission is
produced by nonthermal electrons. We show here that acceleration of electrons
by plasma wave turbulence in hot gases near the black hole's event horizon can
account both for Sagittarius A*'s mm and shorter wavelengths emission in the
quiescent state, and for the infrared and X-ray flares, induced either via an
enhancement of the mass accretion rate onto the black hole or by a
reorganization of the magnetic field coupled to the accretion gas. The
acceleration model proposed here produces distinct flare spectra that may be
compared with future coordinated multi-wavelength observations. We further
suggest that the diffusion of high energy electrons away from the acceleration
site toward larger radii might be able to account for the observed
characteristics of Sagittarius A*'s emission at cm and longer wavelengths.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures and 1 table, submitted to ApJ
Transition from collisionless to collisional MRI
Recent calculations by Quataert et al. (2002) found that the growth rates of
the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in a collisionless plasma can differ
significantly from those calculated using MHD. This can be important in hot
accretion flows around compact objects. In this paper we study the transition
from the collisionless kinetic regime to the collisional MHD regime, mapping
out the dependence of the MRI growth rate on collisionality. A kinetic closure
scheme for a magnetized plasma is used that includes the effect of collisions
via a BGK operator. The transition to MHD occurs as the mean free path becomes
short compared to the parallel wavelength 2\pi/k_{\Par}. In the weak magnetic
field regime where the Alfv\'en and MRI frequencies are small compared
to the sound wave frequency k_{\Par} c_0, the dynamics are still effectively
collisionless even if , so long as the collision frequency \nu
\ll k_{\Par} c_{0}; for an accretion flow this requires \nu \lsim \Omega
\sqrt{\beta}. The low collisionality regime not only modifies the MRI growth
rate, but also introduces collisionless Landau or Barnes damping of long
wavelength modes, which may be important for the nonlinear saturation of the
MRI.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, submitted to ApJ with a clearer derivation of
anisotropic pressure closure from drift kinetic equatio
Magnetically Driven Accretion in the Kerr Metric III: Unbound Outflows
We have carried out fully relativistic numerical simulations of accretion
disks in the Kerr metric. In this paper we focus on the unbound outflows that
emerge self-consistently from the accretion flow. These outflows are found in
the axial funnel region and consist of two components: a hot, fast, tenuous
outflow in the axial funnel proper, and a colder, slower, denser jet along the
funnel wall. Although a rotating black hole is not required to produce these
unbound outflows, their strength is enhanced by black hole spin. The
funnel-wall jet is excluded from the axial funnel due to elevated angular
momentum, and is also pressure-confined by a magnetized corona. The tenuous
funnel outflow accounts for a significant fraction of the energy transported to
large distances in the higher-spin simulations. We compare the outflows
observed in our simulations with those seen in other simulations.Comment: 33 pages, 8 figures, ApJ submitte
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