Eccentric Disks from Gaseous Rings around Equal-Mass, Circular Binaries

Abstract

We perform high-resolution, grid-based hydrodynamics simulations of gaseous rings viscously spreading into disks around equal-mass, circular binaries. We find that all systems suppress accretion onto the binary when the gas is relatively cold. Circumbinary rings (CBRs) display weak variability above the binary orbital frequency ${\Omega }_b$ and a dominant spectral peak at $\sim 0.1{\Omega }_b$ (half the fiducial lump frequency of $\sim 0.2{\Omega }_b$). The evolution of CBR eccentricity depends strongly on both the initial ring radius and gas temperature, with smaller, colder rings exhibiting higher eccentricity up to $e\simeq 0.7$. Cold, compact rings develop nearly radius-independent eccentricity profiles, maintaining large $e$ out to several times the initial gas semimajor axis. We find that eccentricity growth favors a stream impact mechanism, in which gas torqued by the binary at pericenter passage exerts a perturbative force on the cavity wall. We consider inefficiently-accreting, intermediate-mass ($\sim 10^4{M}_{\odot }$) black hole binaries as sources of quasi-periodic eruptions when rejected streams shock the cavity wall and radiate in the UV or soft X-ray. We discuss the implications of eccentric disks evolved from CBRs for quasar light curves and asymmetric, time-variable double-peaked line emission from disks in galactic nuclei. If binaries drive asymmetry in accretion disk line profiles, our study suggests that the progenitor CBR must have been very compact.

16 pages, 9 figures

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