Effective Inner Radius of Tilted Black Hole Accretion Disks
arXiv:0910.5721 · doi:10.1088/0004-637X/706/2/L246
Abstract
One of the primary means of determining the spin of an astrophysical black hole is by actually measuring the inner radius of a surrounding accretion disk and using that to infer the spin. By comparing a number of different estimates of the inner radius from simulations of tilted accretion disks with differing black-hole spins, we show that such a procedure can give quite wrong answers. Over the range 0 <= a/M <= 0.9, we find that, for moderately thick disks (H/r ~ 0.2) with modest tilt (15 degrees), the inner radius is nearly independent of spin. This result is likely dependent on tilt, such that for larger tilts, it may even be that the inner radius would increase with increasing spin. In the opposite limit, we confirm through numerical simulations of untilted disks that, in the limit of zero tilt, the inner radius recovers approximately the expected dependence on spin.
5 pages, 4 figures, accepted to ApJ Letters
References in corpus (6)
- Global General Relativistic MHD Simulation of a Tilted Black-Hole Accretion Disk
- A Long, Hard Look at the Low-Hard State in Accreting Black Holes
- Testing Accretion Disk Theory in Black Hole X-ray Binaries
- A systematic look at the Very High and Low/Hard state of GX 339-4: Constraining the black hole spin with a new reflection model
- Where is the Radiation Edge in Magnetized Black Hole Accretion discs?
- Epicyclic Motions and Standing Shocks in Numerically Simulated Tilted Black-Hole Accretion Disks
Cited by in corpus (42)
- Hot Accretion Flows Around Black Holes
- Jet Launching Structure Resolved Near the Supermassive Black Hole in M87
- A review of quasi-periodic oscillations from black hole X-ray binaries: observation and theory
- Alignment of Magnetized Accretion Disks and Relativistic Jets with Spinning Black Holes
- A physical model for the continuum variability and QPO in accreting black holes
- The Submillimeter Bump in Sgr A* from Relativistic MHD Simulations
- The Reflection Component from Cygnus X-1 in the Soft State Measured by NuSTAR and Suzaku
- An exact analytic treatment of propagating mass accretion rate fluctuations in X-ray binaries
- NuSTAR and Suzaku observations of the hard state in Cygnus X-1: locating the inner accretion disk
- Magnetospheres of Black Hole Systems in Force-Free Plasma
- Modelling variability in black hole binaries: linking simulations to observations
- The Spin of the Black Hole in the Soft X-ray Transient A0620--00
- Tilted black hole accretion disc models of Sagittarius A*: time-variable millimetre to near-infrared emission
- Black Hole Spin-Orbit Misalignment in Galactic X-ray Binaries
- Tomographic reflection modelling of quasi-periodic oscillations in the black hole binary H 1743-322
- Implications from Late-Time X-ray Detections of Optically Selected Tidal Disruption Events: State Changes, Unification, and Detection Rates
- A unified Lense-Thirring precession model for optical and X-ray quasi-periodic oscillations in black hole binaries
- Observational Signatures of Tilted Black Hole Accretion Disks from Simulations
- A physical interpretation of the variability power spectral components in accreting neutron stars
- High-Frequency and Type-C QPOs from Oscillating, Precessing Hot, Thick Flow
- Observational constraints on the spin of the most massive black holes from radio observations
- A physical model for the flickering variability in cataclysmic variables
- Attempt to find a correlation between the spin of stellar-mass black hole candidates and the power of steady jets: relaxing the Kerr black hole hypothesis
- The effect of frame dragging on the iron K alpha line in X-ray binaries
- Tilted Disks around Black Holes: A Numerical Parameter Survey for Spin and Inclination Angle
- Conservative GRMHD Simulations of Moderately Thin, Tilted Accretion Disks
- No Evidence for Bardeen-Petterson Alignment in GRMHD Simulations and Semi-Analytic Models of Moderately Thin, Prograde, Tilted Accretion Disks
- Revealing the broad iron Kalpha line in Cygnus X-1 through simultaneous XMM-Newton, RXTE, and INTEGRAL observations
- Interference as an origin of the peaked noise in accreting X-ray binaries
- Impact of precession on aligned-spin searches for neutron-star--black-hole binaries
- Radiative Models of Sagittarius A* and M87 from Relativistic MHD Simulations
- Interplay of spectral components in timing properties of accreting compact objects
- Are Low-Frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillations seen in accretion flows the disk response to a jet instability?
- Effect of geometrically thin discs on precessing, thick flows: Relevance to type-C QPOs
- Physical Properties of the Inner Shocks in Hot, Tilted Black Hole Accretion Flows
- Electromagnetic vs. Lense-Thirring alignment of black hole accretion discs
- Neutron Star QPOs from Oscillating, Precessing Hot, Thick Flow
- Alignments Of Black Holes With Their Warped Accretion Disks And Episodic Lifetimes Of Active Galactic Nuclei
- Co-precession of a curved jet and compact accretion disk in M87
- Tilted Accretion Disks
- Current Status of Simulations
- Interactions of Type I X-ray Bursts with Thin Accretion Discs