paper

Magnetically Driven Accretion Flows in the Kerr Metric IV: Dynamical Properties of the Inner Disk

arXiv:astro-ph/0409231 · doi:10.1086/427932

Abstract

This paper continues the analysis of a set of general relativistic 3D MHD simulations of accreting tori in the Kerr metric with different black hole spins. We focus on bound matter inside the initial pressure maximum, where the time-averaged motion of gas is inward and an accretion disk forms. We use the flows of mass, angular momentum, and energy in order to understand dynamics in this region. The sharp reduction in accretion rate with increasing black hole spin reported in Paper I of this series is explained by a strongly spin-dependent outward flux of angular momentum conveyed electromagnetically; when a/M > 0.9, this flux can be comparable to the inward angular momentum flux carried by the matter. In all cases, there is outward electromagnetic angular momentum flux throughout the flow; in other words, contrary to the assertions of traditional accretion disk theory, there is in general no "stress edge", no surface within which the stress is zero. The retardation of accretion in the inner disk by electromagnetic torques also alters the radial distribution of surface density, an effect that may have consequences for observable properties such as Compton reflection. The net accreted angular momentum is sufficiently depressed by electromagnetic effects that in the most rapidly-spinning black holes mass growth can lead to spindown. Spinning black holes also lose energy by Poynting flux; this rate is also a strongly increasing function of black hole spin, rising to 10% or more of the rest-mass accretion rate at very high spin. As the black hole spins faster, the path of the Poynting flux changes from being predominantly within the accretion disk to predominantly within the funnel outflow.

38 pages, submitted to ApJ

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