Effect of geometrically thin discs on precessing, thick flows: Relevance to type-C QPOs

Abstract

Type-C quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) are the low-frequency QPOs most commonly observed during the hard spectral state of X-ray binary systems. The leading model for these QPOs is the Lense-Thirring precession of a hot, geometrically thick accretion flow that is misaligned with respect to the black hole spin axis. However, none of the work done to date has accounted for the effects of a surrounding, geometrically thin disc on this precession, as would be the case in the truncated disc picture of the hard state. To address this, we perform a set of GRMHD simulations of truncated discs misaligned with the spin axes of their central black holes. Our results confirm that the inner-hot flow still undergoes precession, though at a rate that is only 5 percent of what is predicted for an isolated, precessing torus. We find that the exchange of angular momentum between the outer, thin and the inner, thick disc causes this slow-down in the precession rate and discuss its relevance to type-C QPOs.

Submitted to MNRAS Letters

References in corpus (31)

• X-ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries
• Towards a unified model for black hole X-ray binary jets
• Advection-Dominated Accretion and the Spectral States of Black Hole X-Ray Binaries: Application to Nova Muscae 1991
• Lense-Thirring Precession and QPOs in Low Mass X-Ray Binaries
• General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Jet Formation and Large-Scale Propagation from Black Hole Accretion Systems
• Spectral Properties of Accretion Disks Around Galactic and Extragalactic Black Holes
• Low frequency QPO spectra and Lense-Thirring precession
• Correlations in the QPO Frequencies of Low Mass X-Ray Binaries and the Relativistic Precession Model
• Global General Relativistic MHD Simulation of a Tilted Black-Hole Accretion Disk
• Formation of Precessing Jets by Tilted Black-hole Discs in 3D General Relativistic MHD Simulations
• A review of quasi-periodic oscillations from black hole X-ray binaries: observation and theory
• Plasma Ejection from Magnetic Flares and the X-ray Spectrum of Cygnus X-1
• A physical model for the continuum variability and QPO in accreting black holes
• A quasi-periodic modulation of the iron line centroid energy in the black hole binary H 1743-322
• Geometrical constraints on the origin of timing signals from black holes
• Relativistic Diskoseismology
• Cosmos++: Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics on Unstructured Grids with Local Adaptive Refinement
• NuSTAR and Suzaku observations of the hard state in Cygnus X-1: locating the inner accretion disk
• Discovery of two simultaneous non-harmonically related Quasi-Periodic Oscillations in the 2005 outburst of the black-hole binary GRO J1655-40
• Inclination dependence of QPO phase lags in black hole X-ray binaries
• Quasi periodic oscillations in black hole binaries
• Disc Tearing and Bardeen-Petterson Alignment in GRMHD Simulations of Highly Tilted Thin Accretion Discs
• Relativistic Diskoseismology. II. Analytical Results for C-modes
• The Existence of Inner Cool Disks in the Low Hard State of Accreting Black Holes
• A mechanism for hysteresis in black hole binary state transitions
• Effective Inner Radius of Tilted Black Hole Accretion Disks
• Accretion-ejection instability and QPO in black hole binaries. I. Observations
• Phase-resolved spectroscopy of a quasi-periodic oscillation in the black hole X-ray binary GRS 1915+105 with NICER and NuSTAR
• Tilted Disks around Black Holes: A Numerical Parameter Survey for Spin and Inclination Angle
• No Evidence for Bardeen-Petterson Alignment in GRMHD Simulations and Semi-Analytic Models of Moderately Thin, Prograde, Tilted Accretion Disks
• No Correlation Between Disc Scale-Height and Jet Power in GRMHD Simulations

Cited by in corpus (12)

• A unified accretion disc model for supermassive black holes in galaxy formation simulations: method and implementation
• A Phase-resolved View of the Low-frequency Quasiperiodic Oscillations from the Black Hole Binary MAXI J1820+070
• Misaligned magnetized accretion flows onto spinning black holes: Magneto-spin alignment, outflow power, and intermittent jets
• Measuring Black Hole Spins through X-ray Reflection Spectroscopy and the Relativistic Precession Model: the case of XTE J1859+226
• The Luminous, Hard State Can't Be MAD
• Proof of principle X-ray reflection mass measurement of the black hole in H1743-322
• Evidence for a dynamic corona in the short-term time lags of black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1820+070
• Electron Heating in the Trans-Relativistic Perpendicular Shocks of Tilted Accretion Flows
• Extreme scale height variations and nozzle shocks in warped disks
• Tilted Accretion Disks
• Misalignment of the Lense-Thirring precession by an accretion torque
• Polarization Signatures of Quasi-Periodic Oscillations in Simulated Tilted, Truncated Disks