Disc breaking through forced eccentricity growth

Abstract

Motivated by misaligned discs observed in eccentric orbit Be/X-ray binaries, we examine the evolution of a retrograde disc around one component of an eccentric binary with hydrodynamic simulations, $n$-body simulations and linear theory. Forced eccentricity growth from the eccentric orbit binary causes the initially circular disk to undergo eccentricity oscillations. A retrograde disc becomes more radially extended, more highly eccentric and undergoes more rapid apsidal precession compared to a prograde disc. We find that a retrograde disc can be subject to disc breaking where the disc forms two rings with different eccentricities and longitude of periastrons while remaining coplanar. This could have implications for the lightcurves and the X-ray outbursts observed in Be/X-ray binaries.

6 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (43)

• REBOUND: An open-source multi-purpose N-body code for collisional dynamics
• SPLASH: An interactive visualisation tool for Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations
• IAS15: A fast, adaptive, high-order integrator for gravitational dynamics, accurate to machine precision over a billion orbits
• Be/X-ray binaries
• Classical Be Stars: Rapidly Rotating B Stars with Viscous Keplerian Decretion Disks
• Phantom: A smoothed particle hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics code for astrophysics
• Binary Black Hole Accretion From a Circumbinary Disk: Gas Dynamics Inside the Central Cavity
• A natural explanation for periodic X-ray outbursts in Be/X-ray binaries
• On the diffusive propagation of warps in thin accretion discs
• Viscous Effects on the Interaction between the Coplanar Decretion Disc and the Neutron Star in Be/X-Ray Binaries
• The Be/X-ray transient 4U 0115+63/V635 Cas I. A consistent model
• Tidal Truncation of Inclined Circumstellar and Circumbinary Discs in Young Stellar Binaries
• On the Bardeen-Petterson Effect in black hole accretion discs
• Non-linear fluid dynamics of eccentric discs
• The Be/X-ray transient 4U 0115+63/V635 Cas: II. Outburst mechanisms
• Giant Outbursts in Be/X-ray Binaries
• A comparison between grid and particle methods on the statistics of driven, supersonic, isothermal turbulence
• The Gravo-Magneto Limit Cycle in Accretion Disks
• Tidal Torques on Misaligned Disks in Binary Systems
• On the physical nature of accretion disc viscosity
• The life cycles of Be viscous decretion discs: fundamental disc parameters of 54 SMC Be stars
• The dynamics of eccentric accretion discs in superhump systems
• Stable counteralignment of a circumbinary disc
• The first determination of the viscosity parameter in the circumstellar disk of a Be Star
• Tidal Warping of Be Star Decretion Discs
• Origin of Two Types of X-Ray Outbursts in Be/X-Ray Binaries. I. Accretion Scenarios
• The life cycles of Be viscous decretion discs: The case of ω CMa
• Supernova Kicks and Misaligned Be Star Binaries
• Resonances in retrograde circumbinary discs
• Misaligned accretion disc formation via Kozai-Lidov oscillations
• On the relationship between circumstellar disc size and X-ray outbursts in Be/X-ray binaries
• Warp propagation in astrophysical discs
• Growth and Dissipation of Be Star Discs in Misaligned Binary Systems
• The Circumstellar Discs of Be Stars
• Origin of Spin-Orbit Misalignments: The Microblazar V4641 Sgr
• Secular Dynamics of S-type Planetary Orbits in Binary Star Systems: Applicability Domains of First- and Second-Order Theories
• The Bardeen-Petterson effect in accreting supermassive black-hole binaries: disc breaking and critical obliquity
• Long-Term Stability of Planets in the $\alpha$ Centauri System, II: Forced Eccentricities
• Type I outbursts in low eccentricity Be/X-ray binaries
• The Large Scale Behaviour in the Disk of $\delta$ Scorpii from 2000-2018
• Nonlinear evolution of the magnetorotational instability in eccentric disks
• Evolution of $\alpha$ Centauri B's protoplanetary disc
• Retrograde discs around one component of a binary are unstable to tilting