Non-axisymmetric relativistic Bondi–Hoyle accretion on to a Schwarzschild black hole

We present the results of an exhaustive numerical study of fully relativistic non-axisymmetric Bondi–Hoyle accretion on to a moving Schwarzschild black hole. We have solved the equations of general relativistic hydrodynamics with a high-resolution shock-capturing numerical scheme based on a linearized Riemann solver. The numerical code was previously used to study axisymmetric flow configurations past a Schwarzschild black hole. We have analysed and discussed the flow morphology for a sample of asymptotically high Mach number models. The results of this work reveal that initially asymptotic uniform flows always accrete on to the hole in a stationary way, which closely resembles the previous axisymmetric patterns. This is in contrast with some Newtonian numerical studies where violent flip-flop instabilities were found. As discussed in the text, the reason can be found in the initial conditions used in the relativistic regime, as they cannot exactly duplicate the previous Newtonian setups where the instability appeared. The dependence of the final solution on the inner boundary condition as well as on the grid resolution has also been studied. Finally, we have computed the accretion rates of mass and linear and angular momentum.     

Resonant tidal disruption in galactic nuclei

It has recently been shown by Rauch 38 Tremaine that the rate of angular momentum relaxation in nearly Keplerian star clusters is greatly increased by a process termed 'resonant relaxation'; it was also argued, via a series of scaling arguments, that tidal disruption of stars in galactic nuclei containing massive black holes could be noticeably enhanced by this process. We describe here the results of numerical simulations of resonant tidal disruption which quantitatively test the predictions made by Rauch 38 Tremaine. The simulation method is based on an N -body routine incorporating cloning of stars near the loss cone and a semirelativistic symplectic integration scheme. Normalized disruption rates for resonant and non-resonant nuclei are derived at orbital energies both above and below the critical energy, and the corresponding angular momentum distribution functions are found. The black hole mass above which resonant tidal disruption is quenched by relativistic precession is determined. We also briefly describe the discovery of chaos in the Wisdom–Holman symplectic integrator applied to highly eccentric orbits and propose a modified integration scheme that remains robust under these conditions. We find that resonant disruption rates exceed their non-resonant counterparts by an amount consistent with the predictions; in particular, we estimate the net tidal disruption rate for a fully resonant cluster to be about twice that of its non-resonant counterpart. No significant enhancement in rates is observed outside the critical radius. Relativistic quenching of the effect is found to occur for hole masses M  >  M _Q  = (8 ± 3) × 10⁷  M . The numerical results combined with the observed properties of galactic nuclei indicate that for most galaxies the resonant enhancement to tidal disruption rates will be very small.     

Radiatively driven mass accretion on to galactic nuclei by circumnuclear starbursts

We examine the physical processes of radiatively driven mass accretion on to galactic nuclei, owing to intensive radiation from circumnuclear starbursts. The radiation from a starburst not only causes the inner gas disc to contract via radition flux force, but also extracts angular momentum owing to relativistic radiation drag, thereby inducing an avalanche of the surface layer of the disc. To analyse such a mechanism, the radiation–hydrodynamical equations are solved, including the effects of the radiation drag force as well as the radiation flux force. As a result, it is found that the mass accretion rate owing to the radiative avalanche is given by M ˙ ( r )= η ( L _*/ c ²)( r / R )² (Δ R / R )(1 −  e ^−τ) at radius r , where the efficiency η ranges from 0.2 up to 1, L _* and R are respectively the bolometric luminosity and the radius of the starburst ring, Δ R is the extent of the emission regions, and τ is the face-on optical depth of the disc. In an optically thick regime, the rate depends upon neither the optical depth nor the surface mass density distribution of the disc. The present radiatively driven mass accretion may provide a physical mechanism which enables mass accretion from 100-pc scales down to ∼ parsec scales, and it may eventually be linked to advection-dominated viscous accretion on to a massive black hole. The radiation–hydrodynamical and self-gravitational instabilities of the disc are briefly discussed. In particular, the radiative acceleration possibly builds up a dusty wall, which 'shades' the nucleus in edge-on views. This provides another version of the model for the formation of an obscuring torus.     

Evidence of the Link between Broad Emission Line Regions and Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei

1 INTRODUCTION Most bright active galactic nuclei (AGNs) exhibit broad emission lines, with full width at half maximum (FWHM ≥ 103 km s?1) (Peterson et al. 1999). Some type 1 AGNs could have very broad emission lines (FWHM≥ 20 000 km s?1). Type 2 AGNs s…     

Shock oscillation model for quasi-periodic oscillations in stellar mass and supermassive black holes

We numerically examine centrifugally supported shock waves in 2D rotating accretion flows around a stellar mass  (10 M_⊙)  and a supermassive  (10⁶ M_⊙)  black holes over a wide range of input accretion rates of     . The resultant 2D shocks are unstable with time and the luminosities show quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) with modulations of a factor of 2–3 and with periods of a tenth of a second to several hours, depending on the black hole masses. The shock oscillation model may explain the intermediate frequency QPOs with 1–10 Hz observed in the stellar mass black hole candidates and also suggest the existence of QPOs with the period of hours in active galactic nuclei. When the accretion rate     is low, the luminosity increases in proportion to the accretion rate. However, when     greatly exceeds the Eddington critical rate     , the luminosity is insensitive to the accretion rate and is kept constantly around  ∼3 L _E  . On the other hand, the mass-outflow rate     increases in proportion to     and it amounts to about a few per cent of the input mass-flow rate.