Kinematic Density Waves in Accretion Disks

Abstract

When thin accretion disks around black holes are perturbed, the main restoring force is gravity. If gas pressure, magnetic stresses, and radiation pressure are neglected, the disk remains thin as long as orbits do not intersect. Intersections would result in pressure forces which limit the growth of perturbations. We find that a discrete set of perturbations is possible for which orbits remain non-intersecting for arbitrarily long times. These modes define a discrete set of frequencies. We classify all long-lived perturbations for arbitrary potentials and show how their mode frequencies are related to pattern speeds computed from the azimuthal and epicyclic frequencies. We show that modes are concentrated near radii where the pattern speed has vanishing radial derivative. We explore these modes around Kerr black holes as a possible explanation for the high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations of black hole binaries such as GRO J1655-40. The long-lived modes are shown to coincide with diskoseismic waves in the limit of small sound speed. While the waves have long lifetime, they have the wrong frequencies to explain the pairs of high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations observed in black hole binaries.

28 pages, 6 figures; extended comparison with diskoseismology; added reference to astro-ph/0603687

References in corpus (14)

• X-ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries
• A precise determination of angular momentum in the black hole candidate GRO J1655-40
• Correlations in the QPO Frequencies of Low Mass X-Ray Binaries and the Relativistic Precession Model
• A New Simple Model for High Frequency Quasi Periodic Oscillations in Black Hole Candidates
• 'Stable' QPOs and Black Hole Properties from Diskoseismology
• High- and low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations in the X-ray light curves of the black hole transient H1743-322
• Relativistic Diskoseismology. I. Analytical Results for 'Gravity Modes'
• A Precessing Ring Model for Low-Frequency Quasi-periodic Oscillations
• A Model for High Frequency Quasi-periodic Oscillations from Accreting Black Holes
• High Frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillations in the 2000 Outburst of the Galactic Microquasar XTE J1550-564
• Resonance in Forced Oscillations of an Accretion Disk and Kilohertz Quasi Periodic Oscillations
• Twin peaks kHz QPOs: mathematics of the 3:2 orbital resonance
• Interpreting the High Frequency QPO Power Spectra of Accreting Black Holes
• Persistent Patterns in Accretion Disks

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Corotational Instability of Inertial-Acoustic Modes in Black Hole Accretion Discs and Quasi-Periodic Oscillations
• Oscillatory patterns in the light curves of 5 long-term monitored type 1 AGN
• Corotational Instability, Magnetic Resonances and Global Inertial-Acoustic Oscillations in Magnetized Black-Hole Accretion Discs
• A General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Model of High Frequency Quasi-periodic Oscillations in Black Hole Low-Mass X-ray Binaries
• Vortex density waves and negative absolute resistance in patterned superconductors