Disc tearing: numerical investigation of warped disc instability

Abstract

We present numerical simulations of misaligned discs around a spinning black hole covering a range of parameters. Previous simulations have shown that discs that are strongly warped by a forced precession -- in this case the Lense-Thirring effect from the spinning black hole -- can break apart into discrete discs or rings that can behave quasi-independently for short timescales. With the simulations we present here, we confirm that thin and highly inclined discs are more susceptible to disc tearing than thicker or low inclination discs, and we show that lower values of the disc viscosity parameter lead to instability at lower warp amplitudes. This is consistent with detailed stability analysis of the warped disc equations. We find that the growth rates of the instability seen in the numerical simulations are similar across a broad range of parameters, and are of the same order as the predicted growth rates. However, we did not find the expected trend of growth rates with viscosity parameter. This may indicate that the growth rates are affected by numerical resolution, or that the wavelength of the fastest growing mode is a function of local disc parameters. Finally, we also find that disc tearing can occur for discs with a viscosity parameter that is higher than predicted by a local stability analysis of the warped disc equations. In this case, the instability manifests differently producing large changes in the disc tilt locally in the disc, rather than the large changes in disc twist that typically occur in lower viscosity discs.

arXiv comment17 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (45)

• SPLASH: An interactive visualisation tool for Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations
• Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics and Magnetohydrodynamics
• Accretion disc viscosity: how big is alpha?
• Phantom: A smoothed particle hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics code for astrophysics
• Global General Relativistic MHD Simulation of a Tilted Black-Hole Accretion Disk
• Chaotic star formation and the alignment of stellar rotation with disc and planetary orbital axes
• On the diversity and statistical properties of protostellar discs
• Inviscid SPH
• The tidally induced warping, precession and truncation of accretion discs in binary systems: three-dimensional simulations
• The non-linear fluid dynamics of a warped accretion disc
• Tearing up the disc: misaligned accretion on to a binary
• On the diffusive propagation of warps in thin accretion discs
• Observational Implications of Precessing Protostellar Discs and Jets
• The alignment of disk and black hole spins in active galactic nuclei
• SPH simulations of tidally unstable accretion disks in cataclysmic variables
• Wave-like warp propagation in circumbinary discs I. Analytic theory and numerical simulations
• On the Bardeen-Petterson Effect in black hole accretion discs
• Tearing up the disc: how black holes accrete
• On the convergence of the critical cooling timescale for the fragmentation of self-gravitating discs
• Hydrodynamic Simulations of the Bardeen-Petterson Effect
• Accretion kinematics through the warped transition disk in HD142527 from resolved CO(6-5) observations
• The evolution of a warped disc around a Kerr black hole
• Disc Tearing and Bardeen-Petterson Alignment in GRMHD Simulations of Highly Tilted Thin Accretion Discs
• The 35-Day Evolution of the Hercules X-1 Pulse Profile: Evidence For A Resolved Inner Disk Occultation of the Neutron Star
• A triple star system with a misaligned and warped circumstellar disk shaped by disk tearing
• The hydrodynamical response of a tilted circumbinary disc: linear theory and non-linear numerical simulations
• Disc tearing: implications for black hole accretion and AGN variability
• Tearing up a misaligned accretion disc with a binary companion
• Broken discs: warp propagation in accretion discs
• On the physical nature of accretion disc viscosity
• Stable counteralignment of a circumbinary disc
• Evolution of warped and twisted accretion discs in close binary systems
• Local and global dynamics of warped astrophysical discs
• Hydrodynamic Simulations of Propagating Warps and Bending Waves In Accretion Discs
• Rapid AGN accretion from counter-rotating discs
• An alpha theory of time-dependent warped accretion discs
• Generalised warped disk equations
• A physical model for state transitions in black hole X-ray binaries
• Instability of warped discs
• Relaxation of Warped Disks: the Case of Pure Hydrodynamics
• General relativistic smoothed particle hydrodynamics
• The Magnetorotational Instability in the Kerr Metric
• Instability of non-Keplerian warped discs
• Accretion disc viscosity: a limit on the anisotropy
• Reconciling EHT and Gas Dynamics Measurements in M87: Is the Jet Misaligned at Parsec Scales?

Cited by in corpus (21)

• X-ray Quasi-Periodic Eruptions from two previously quiescent galaxies
• Disc tearing: implications for black hole accretion and AGN variability
• Magnetically Dominated Disks in Tidal Disruption Events and Quasi-Periodic Eruptions
• Modified models of radiation pressure instability in application to 10, 10${}^5$, and 10${}^7$ $M_{\odot }$ accreting black holes
• Radiation Transport Two-Temperature GRMHD Simulations of Warped Accretion Disks
• Nozzle Shocks, Disk Tearing and Streamers Drive Rapid Accretion in 3D GRMHD Simulations of Warped Thin Disks
• Disk Tearing Leads to Low and High Frequency Quasi Periodic Oscillations in a GRMHD Simulation of a Thin Accretion Disk
• Lense-Thirring Precession after a Supermassive Black Hole Disrupts a Star
• Alive but Barely Kicking: News from 3+ years of Swift and XMM-Newton X-ray Monitoring of Quasi-Periodic Eruptions from eRO-QPE1
• On the dynamics of low-viscosity warped discs around black holes
• On the equations of warped disc dynamics
• The Bardeen-Petterson effect, disk breaking, and the spin orientations of supermassive black-hole binaries
• Hydrodynamics of warps in the local model of astrophysical discs
• Simulated optical light curves of super-Eddington tidal disruption events with ZEBRA flows
• Parametric instability in warped astrophysical discs: growth, saturation and feedback
• Testing the Shock-cooling Emission Model from Star-Disk Collisions for Quasiperiodic Eruptions
• Disc breaking and parametric instability in warped accretion discs
• Central kiloparsec region of Andromeda. I. Dynamical modelling
• Identifying Changing-Look AGN Transitions in Light Curve Data with the Zwicky Transient Facility
• Dynamics of magnetoviscous warped discs around compact objects
• Parsec-scale jet precession and a putative supermassive binary black hole system in the blazar AO 0235+164