paper

Resonance Oscillation Of Radiative Shock Waves In Accretion Disks Around Compact Objects

arXiv:astro-ph/9508022 · doi:10.1086/176775

Abstract

We extend our previous numerical simulation of accretion disks with shock waves when cooling effects are also included. We consider bremsstrahlung and other power law processes: to mimic cooling in our simulation. We employ {\it Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics} technique as in the past. We observe that for a given angular momentum of the flow, the shock wave undergoes a steady, radial oscillation with the period is roughly equal to the cooling time. Oscillations seem to take place when the disk and cooling parameters (i.e., accretion rate, cooling process) are such that the infall time from shock is of the same order as the post-shock cooling time. The amplitude of oscillation could be up to ten percent of the distance of the shock wave from the black hole when the black hole is accreting. When the accretion is impossible due to the centrifugal barrier, the amplitude variation could be much larger. Due to the oscillation, the energy output from the disk is also seen to vary quasi-periodically. We believe that these oscillations might be responsible for the quasi periodic oscillation (QPO) behaviors seen in several black hole candidates, in neutron star systems as well as dwarf novae outbursts such as SS Cygni and VW Hyi.

24 pages of text plus 6 figures (in tar-compressed form); Astrophysical journal (in press)

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