No Arabic abstract
We report results from general relativistic radiation MHD (GRRMHD) simulations of a super-Eddington black hole (BH) accretion disk formed as a result of a tidal disruption event (TDE). We consider the fiducial case of a solar mass star on a mildly penetrating orbit disrupted by a supermassive BH of mass $10^6 , M_odot$, and consider the epoch of peak fall back rate. We post-process the simulation data to compute viewing angle dependent spectra. We perform a parameter study of the dynamics of the accretion disk as a function of BH spin and magnetic flux, and compute model spectra as a function of the viewing angle of the observer. We also consider detection limits based on the model spectra. We find that an accretion disk with a relatively weak magnetic field around the BH (so-called SANE regime of accretion) does not launch a relativistic jet, whether or not the BH is rotating. Such models reasonably reproduce several observational properties of non-jetted TDEs. The same is also true for a non-rotating BH with a strong magnetic field (MAD regime). One of our simulations has a rapidly rotating BH (spin parameter 0.9) as well as a MAD accretion disk. This model launches a powerful relativistic jet, which is powered by the BH spin energy. It reproduces the high energy emission and jet structure of the jetted TDE Swift J1644+57 surprisingly well. Jetted TDEs may thus correspond to the subset of TDE systems that have both a rapidly spinning BH and MAD accretion.
After the Tidal Disruption Event (TDE) of a star around a SuperMassive Black Hole (SMBH), the bound stellar debris rapidly forms an accretion disk. If the accretion disk is not aligned with the spinning SMBHs equatorial plane, the disk will be driven into Lense-Thirring precession around the SMBHs spin axis, possibly affecting the TDEs light curve. We carry out an eigenmode analysis of such a disk to understand how the disks warp structure, precession, and inclination evolution are influenced by the disks and SMBHs properties. We find an oscillatory warp may develop as a result of strong non-Keplarian motion near the SMBH. The global disk precession frequency matches the Lense-Thirring precession frequency of a rigid disk around a spinning black hole within a factor of a few when the disks accretion rate is high, but deviates significantly at low accretion rates. Viscosity aligns the disk with the SMBHs equatorial plane over timescales of days to years, depending on the disks accretion rate, viscosity, and SMBHs mass. We also examine the effect of fall-back material on the warp evolution of TDE disks, and find that the fall-back torque aligns the TDE disk with the SMBHs equatorial plane in a few to tens of days for the parameter space investigated. Our results place constraints on models of TDE emission which rely on the changing disk orientation with respect to the line of sight to explain observations.
After the Tidal Disruption Event (TDE) of a star around a SuperMassive Black Hole (SMBH), if the stellar debris stream rapidly circularizes and forms a compact disk, the TDE emission is expected to peak in the soft X-ray or far Ultra-Violet (UV). The fact that many TDE candidates are observed to peak in the near UV and optical has challenged conventional TDE emission models. By idealizing a disk as a nested sequence of elliptical orbits which communicate adiabatically via pressure forces, and are heated by energy dissipated during the circularization of the nearly parabolic debris streams, we investigate the dynamics and thermal emission of highly eccentric TDE disks, including the effect of General-Relativistic apsidal precession from the SMBH. We calculate the properties of uniformly precessing, apsidally aligned, and highly eccentric TDE disks, and find highly eccentric disk solutions exist for realistic TDE properties (SMBH and stellar mass, periapsis distance, etc.). Taking into account compressional heating (cooling) near periapsis (apoapsis), we find our idealized eccentric disk model can produce emission consistent with the X-ray and UV/Optical luminosities of many optically bright TDE candidates. Our work attempts to quantify the thermal emission expected from the shock-heating model for TDE emission, and finds stream-stream collisions are a promising way to power optically bright TDEs.
We use global three dimensional radiation magneto-hydrodynamical simulations to study accretion disks onto a $5times 10^8M_{odot}$ black hole with accretion rates varying from $sim 250L_{Edd}/c^2$ to $1500 L_{Edd}/c^2$. We form the disks with torus centered at $50-80$ gravitational radii with self-consistent turbulence initially generated by the magneto-rotational instability. We study cases with and without net vertical magnetic flux. The inner regions of all disks have radiation pressure $sim 10^4-10^6$ times the gas pressure. Non-axisymmetric density waves that steepen into spiral shocks form as gas flows towards the black hole. In simulations without net vertical magnetic flux, Reynolds stress generated by the spiral shocks are the dominant mechanism to transfer angular momentum. Maxwell stress from MRI turbulence can be larger than the Reynolds stress only when net vertical magnetic flux is sufficiently large. Outflows are formed with speed $sim 0.1-0.4c$. When the accretion rate is smaller than $sim 500 L_{Edd}/c^2$, outflows start around $10$ gravitational radii and the radiative efficiency is $sim 5%-7%$ with both magnetic field configurations. With accretion rate reaching $1500 L_{Edd}/c^2$, most of the funnel region close to the rotation axis becomes optically thick and the outflow only develops beyond $50$ gravitational radii. The radiative efficiency is reduced to $1%$. We always find the kinetic energy luminosity associated with the outflow is only $sim 15%-30%$ of the radiative luminosity. The mass flux lost in the outflow is $sim 15%-50%$ of the net mass accretion rates. We discuss implications of our simulation results on the observational properties of these disks.
We use global three dimensional radiation magneto-hydrodynamic simulations to study the properties of inner regions of accretion disks around a 5times 10^8 solar mass black hole with mass accretion rates reaching 7% and 20% of the Eddington value. This region of the disk is supported by magnetic pressure with surface density significantly smaller than the values predicted by the standard thin disk model but with a much larger disk scale height. The disks do not show any sign of thermal instability over many thermal time scales. More than half of the accretion is driven by radiation viscosity in the optically thin corona region for the lower accretion rate case, while accretion in the optically thick part of the disk is driven by the Maxwell and Reynolds stresses from MRI turbulence. Coronae with gas temperatures > 10^8 K are generated only in the inner approx 10 gravitational radii in both simulations, being more compact in the higher accretion rate case. In contrast to the thin disk model, surface density increases with increasing mass accretion rate, which causes less dissipation in the optically thin region and a relatively weaker corona. The simulation results may explain the formation of X-ray coronae in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), the compact size of such coronae, and the observed trend of optical to X-ray luminosity with Eddington ratio for many AGNs.
We study the structure of accretion disks around supermassive black holes in the radial range $30sim 100$ gravitational radii, using a three dimensional radiation magneto-hydrodynamic simulation. For typical conditions in this region of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), the Rosseland mean opacity is expected to be larger than the electron scattering value. We show that the iron opacity bump causes the disk to be convective unstable. Turbulence generated by convection puffs up the disk due to additional turbulent pressure support and enhances the local angular momentum transport. This also results in strong fluctuations in surface density and heating of the disk. The opacity drops with increasing temperature and convection is suppressed. The disk cools down and the whole process repeats again. This causes strong oscillations of the disk scale height and luminosity variations by more than a factor of $approx 3-6$ over a few years timescale. Since the iron opacity bump will move to different locations of the disk for black holes with different masses and accretion rates, we suggest that this is a physical mechanism that can explain the variability of AGN with a wide range of amplitudes over a time scale of years to decades.