SPH simulations of irradiation-driven warped accretion discs and the long periods in X-ray binaries

Abstract

We present three dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) calculations of irradiation-driven warping of accretion discs. Initially unwarped planar discs are unstable to the radiation reaction when the disc is illuminated by a central radiation source. The disc warps and tilts and precesses slowly in a retrograde direction; its shape continuously flexes in response to the changing orientation of the Roche potential. We simulate ten systems: eight X-ray binaries, one cataclysmic variable (CV), and a `generic' low mass X-ray binary (LMXB). We adopt system parameters from observations and tune a single parameter: our model X-ray luminosity ($L_{\ast }$) to reproduce the observed or inferred super-orbital periods. Without exception, across a wide range of parameter space, we find an astonishingly good match between the observed $L_X$ and the model $L_{\ast }$. We conclude irradiation-driven warping is the mechanism underlying the long periods in X-ray binaries. Our Her X-1 simulation simultaneously reproduces the observed $L_X$, the "main-" and "short-high" X-ray states and the orbital inclination. Our simulations of SS 433 give a maximum warp angle of $18.6^{\circ }$, a good match to the cone traced by the jets, but this angle is reached only in the outer disc. In all cases, the overall disc tilt is less than $\degrees{13}$ and the maximum disc warp is less than and or equal to $\degrees{21}$.

17 pages, 14 figures, shorter abstract (24 lines limit)

References in corpus (5)

• The Nature of SS433 and the Ultraluminous X-ray Sources
• Discovery of a flux-related change of the cyclotron line energy in Her X-1
• Comprehensive simulations of superhumps
• Detection of superhumps in the VY Scl-type nova-like variable KR Aur
• FUSE Observations of a Full Orbit of Hercules X-1: Signatures of Disk, Star, and Wind

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