Black Hole-Disk Interactions in Magnetically Arrested Active Galactic Nuclei: General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations Using A Time-Dependent, Binary Metric

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ressler, Sean M., Combi, Luciano, Li, Xinyu, Ripperda, Bart, Yang, Huan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866909159208779776
author Ressler, Sean M.
Combi, Luciano
Li, Xinyu
Ripperda, Bart
Yang, Huan
author_facet Ressler, Sean M.
Combi, Luciano
Li, Xinyu
Ripperda, Bart
Yang, Huan
contents Perturber objects interacting with supermassive black hole accretion disks are often invoked to explain observed quasi-periodic behavior in active galactic nuclei (AGN). We present global, 3D general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations of black holes on inclined orbits colliding with magnetically arrested thick AGN disks using a binary black hole spacetime with mass ratio $0.1$. We do this by implementing an approximate time-dependent binary black hole metric into the GRMHD code Athena++. The secondary enhances the unbound mass outflow rate 2-4 times above that provided by the disk in quasi-periodic outbursts, eventually merging into a more continuous outflow at larger distances. We present a simple analytic model that qualitatively agrees well with this result and can be used to extrapolate to unexplored regions of parameter space. We show self-consistently for the first time that spin-orbit coupling between the primary black hole spin and the binary orbital angular momentum causes the accretion disk and jet directions to precess significantly (by 60$^\circ$-80$^\circ$) on long time-scales (e.g., $\sim$ 20 times the binary orbital period). Because this effect may be the only way for thick AGN disks to consistently precess, it could provide strong evidence of a secondary black hole companion if observed in such a system. Besides this new phenomenology, the time-average properties of the disk and accretion rates onto the primary are only marginally altered by the presence of the secondary, consistent with our estimate for a perturbed thick disk. This situation might drastically change in cooled thin disks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_02193
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Black Hole-Disk Interactions in Magnetically Arrested Active Galactic Nuclei: General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations Using A Time-Dependent, Binary Metric
Ressler, Sean M.
Combi, Luciano
Li, Xinyu
Ripperda, Bart
Yang, Huan
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Perturber objects interacting with supermassive black hole accretion disks are often invoked to explain observed quasi-periodic behavior in active galactic nuclei (AGN). We present global, 3D general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations of black holes on inclined orbits colliding with magnetically arrested thick AGN disks using a binary black hole spacetime with mass ratio $0.1$. We do this by implementing an approximate time-dependent binary black hole metric into the GRMHD code Athena++. The secondary enhances the unbound mass outflow rate 2-4 times above that provided by the disk in quasi-periodic outbursts, eventually merging into a more continuous outflow at larger distances. We present a simple analytic model that qualitatively agrees well with this result and can be used to extrapolate to unexplored regions of parameter space. We show self-consistently for the first time that spin-orbit coupling between the primary black hole spin and the binary orbital angular momentum causes the accretion disk and jet directions to precess significantly (by 60$^\circ$-80$^\circ$) on long time-scales (e.g., $\sim$ 20 times the binary orbital period). Because this effect may be the only way for thick AGN disks to consistently precess, it could provide strong evidence of a secondary black hole companion if observed in such a system. Besides this new phenomenology, the time-average properties of the disk and accretion rates onto the primary are only marginally altered by the presence of the secondary, consistent with our estimate for a perturbed thick disk. This situation might drastically change in cooled thin disks.
title Black Hole-Disk Interactions in Magnetically Arrested Active Galactic Nuclei: General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations Using A Time-Dependent, Binary Metric
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.02193