Tilted Disks around Black Holes: A Numerical Parameter Survey for Spin and Inclination Angle

Abstract

We conduct a systematic study of the properties of tilted accretion flows around spinning black holes, covering a range of tilt angles and black hole spins, using the general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics code Athena++. The same initial magnetized torus is evolved around black holes with spins ranging from 0 to 0.9, with inclinations ranging from 0 degrees to 24 degrees. The tilted disks quickly reach a warped and twisted shape that rigidly precesses about the black hole spin axis with deformations in shape large enough to hinder the application of linear bending wave theory. Magnetized polar outflows form, oriented along the disk rotation axes. At sufficiently high inclinations a pair of standing shocks develops in the disks. These shocks dramatically affect the flow at small radii, driving angular momentum transport. At high spins they redirect material more effectively than they heat it, reducing the dissipation rate relative to the mass accretion rate and lowering the radiative efficiency of the flow.

20 pages, 14 figures, to be published in ApJ

References in corpus (5)

• Global General Relativistic MHD Simulation of a Tilted Black-Hole Accretion Disk
• On the Bardeen-Petterson Effect in black hole accretion discs
• Epicyclic Motions and Standing Shocks in Numerically Simulated Tilted Black-Hole Accretion Disks
• Evolution of linear warps in accretion discs and applications to protoplanetary discs in binaries
• Conservative GRMHD Simulations of Moderately Thin, Tilted Accretion Disks

Cited by in corpus (13)

• First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. V. Testing Astrophysical Models of the Galactic Center Black Hole
• Observing the Inner Shadow of a Black Hole: A Direct View of the Event Horizon
• Ab Initio Horizon-Scale Simulations of Magnetically Arrested Accretion in Sagittarius A* Fed by Stellar Winds
• Precessing jet nozzle connecting to a spinning black hole in M87
• The Surprisingly Small Impact of Magnetic Fields On The Inner Accretion Flow of Sagittarius A* Fueled By Stellar Winds
• Magnetically Modified Spherical Accretion in GRMHD: Reconnection-Driven Convection and Jet Propagation
• Precession-induced Variability in AGN Jets and OJ 287
• GRMHD Simulations and Modeling for Jet Formation and Acceleration Region in AGNs
• Survey of Radiative, Two-Temperature Magnetically Arrested Simulations of the Black Hole M87* I: Turbulent Electron Heating
• The Luminous, Hard State Can't Be MAD
• Deep learning inference with the Event Horizon Telescope II. The Zingularity framework for Bayesian artificial neural networks
• Shock-induced partial alignment in geometrically-thick tilted accretion disks around black holes
• PATOKA: Simulating Electromagnetic Observables of Black Hole Accretion