778 research outputs found
Prompt Electromagnetic Transients from Binary Black Hole Mergers
Binary black hole (BBH) mergers provide a prime source for current and future
interferometric GW observatories. Massive BBH mergers may often take place in
plasma-rich environments, leading to the exciting possibility of a concurrent
electromagnetic (EM) signal observable by traditional astronomical facilities.
However, many critical questions about the generation of such counterparts
remain unanswered. We explore mechanisms that may drive EM counterparts with
magnetohydrodynamic simulations treating a range of scenarios involving
equal-mass black-hole binaries immersed in an initially homogeneous fluid with
uniform, orbitally aligned magnetic fields. We find that the time development
of Poynting luminosity, which may drive jet-like emissions, is relatively
insensitive to aspects of the initial configuration. In particular, over a
significant range of initial values, the central magnetic field strength is
effectively regulated by the gas flow to yield a Poynting luminosity of
, with BBH mass
scaled to and ambient density . We also calculate the
direct plasma synchrotron emissions processed through geodesic ray-tracing.
Despite lensing effects and dynamics, we find the observed synchrotron flux
varies little leading up to merger.Comment: 22 pages, 21 figures; additional reference + clarifying text added to
match published versio
Accretion disks around binary black holes of unequal mass: GRMHD simulations near decoupling
We report on simulations in general relativity of magnetized disks onto black
hole binaries. We vary the binary mass ratio from 1:1 to 1:10 and evolve the
systems when they orbit near the binary-disk decoupling radius. We compare
(surface) density profiles, accretion rates (relative to a single, non-spinning
black hole), variability, effective -stress levels and luminosities as
functions of the mass ratio. We treat the disks in two limiting regimes: rapid
radiative cooling and no radiative cooling. The magnetic field lines clearly
reveal jets emerging from both black hole horizons and merging into one common
jet at large distances. The magnetic fields give rise to much stronger shock
heating than the pure hydrodynamic flows, completely alter the disk structure,
and boost accretion rates and luminosities. Accretion streams near the horizons
are among the densest structures; in fact, the 1:10 no-cooling evolution
results in a refilling of the cavity. The typical effective temperature in the
bulk of the disk is yielding characteristic thermal frequencies . These systems are
thus promising targets for many extragalactic optical surveys, such as LSST,
WFIRST, and PanSTARRS.Comment: 29 pages, 23 captioned figures, 3 tables, submitted to PR
GiRaFFE: An Open-Source General Relativistic Force-Free Electrodynamics Code
We present GiRaFFE, the first open-source general relativistic force-free
electrodynamics (GRFFE) code for dynamical, numerical-relativity generated
spacetimes. GiRaFFE adopts the strategy pioneered by McKinney and modified by
Paschalidis and Shapiro to convert a GR magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) code into a
GRFFE code. In short, GiRaFFE exists as a modification of IllinoisGRMHD, a
user-friendly, open-source, dynamical-spacetime GRMHD code. Both GiRaFFE and
IllinoisGRMHD leverage the Einstein Toolkit's highly-scalable infrastructure to
make possible large-scale simulations of magnetized plasmas in strong,
dynamical spacetimes on adaptive-mesh refinement (AMR) grids. We demonstrate
that GiRaFFE passes a large suite of both flat and curved-spacetime code tests
passed by a number of other state-of-the-art GRFFE codes, and is thus ready for
production-scale simulations of GRFFE phenomena of key interest to relativistic
astrophysics.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures. Consistent with published versio
Accretion disks around binary black holes of unequal mass: GRMHD simulations of postdecoupling and merger
We report results from simulations in general relativity of magnetized disks
accreting onto merging black hole binaries, starting from relaxed disk initial
data. The simulations feature an effective, rapid radiative cooling scheme as a
limiting case of future treatments with radiative transfer. Here we evolve the
systems after binary-disk decoupling through inspiral and merger, and analyze
the dependence on the binary mass ratio with and . We find that the luminosity associated with local
cooling is larger than the luminosity associated with matter kinetic outflows,
while the electromagnetic (Poynting) luminosity associated with bulk transport
of magnetic field energy is the smallest. The cooling luminosity around merger
is only marginally smaller than that of a single, non-spinning black hole.
Incipient jets are launched independently of the mass ratio, while the same
initial disk accreting on a single non-spinning black hole does not lead to a
jet, as expected. For all mass ratios we see a transient behavior in the
collimated, magnetized outflows lasting after
merger: the outflows become increasingly magnetically dominated and accelerated
to higher velocities, boosting the Poynting luminosity. These sudden changes
can alter the electromagnetic emission across the jet and potentially help
distinguish mergers of black holes in AGNs from single accreting black holes
based on jet morphology alone.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, matches published versio
Achieving universal access to antiretroviral therapy in a rural district in Malawi: how was it done?
Mexico AIDS Conference 200
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