by Dauser, T. and Wilms, J. and Reynolds, C. S. and Brenneman, L. W.
7 pages, 6 figures; accepted by MNRAS for Publication

We present an extended scheme for the calculation of the profiles of emission lines from accretion discs around rotating black holes. The scheme includes discs with angular momenta which are parallel and antiparallel with respect to the black hole’s angular momentum, as both configurations are assumed to be stable (King et al., 2005). We discuss line shapes for such discs and present a code for modelling observational data with this scheme in X-ray data analysis programs. Based on a Green’s function approach, an arbitrary radius dependence of the disc emissivity and arbitrary limb darkening laws can be easily taken into account, while the amount of precomputed data is significantly reduced with respect to other available models.

by Wang, J. -M. and Yan, C. -S. and Gao, H. -Q. and Hu, C. and Li, Y. -R. and Zhang, S.
emulateapj.sty, 5 page, 4 figures (in press)

Self-gravitating accretion disks collapse to star-forming(SF) regions extending to the inner edge of the dusty torus in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). A full set of equations including feedback of star formation is given to describe the dynamics of the regions. We explore the role of supernovae explosion (SNexp), acting to excite turbulent viscosity, in the transportation of angular momentum in the regions within 1pc scale. We find that accretion disks with typical rates in AGNs can be driven by SNexp in the regions and metals are produced spontaneously. The present model predicts a metallicity–luminosity relationship consistent with that observed in AGNs. As relics of SF regions, a ring (or belt) consisting of old stars remains for every episode of supermassive black hole activity. We suggest that multiple stellar rings with random directions interact and form a nuclear star cluster after episodes driven by star formation.

by Fu, Wen and Lai, Dong
15 pages, 10 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Hot accretion tori around a compact object are known to be susceptible to a global hydrodynamical instability, the so-called Papaloizou-Pringle (PP) instability, arising from the interaction of non-axisymmetric waves across the corotation radius, where the wave pattern speed matches the fluid rotation rate. However, accretion tori produced in various astrophysical situations (e.g., collapsars and neutron star binary mergers) are likely to be highly magnetized. We study the effect of magnetic fields on the PP instability in incompressible tori with various magnetic strengths and structures. In general, toroidal magnetic fields have significant effects on the PP instability: For thin tori (with the fractional width relative to the outer torus radius much less than unity), the instability is suppressed at large field strengths with the corresponding toroidal Alfven speed $latex v_{A\phi}\go 0.2r\Omega$ (where $latex \Omega$ is the flow rotation rate). For thicker tori (with the fractional width of order 0.4 or larger), which are hydrodynamically stable, the instability sets in for sufficiently strong magnetic fields (with $latex v_{A\phi}\go 0.2 r\Omega$). Our results suggest that highly magnetized accretion tori may be subjected to global instability even when it is stable against the usual magneto-rotational instability.

by Park, KwangHo and Ricotti, Massimo
14 pages, 12 figures, submitted to ApJ

We study the effect of radiative feedback on accretion onto intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) using the hydrodynamical code ZEUS-MP with a radiative transfer algorithm. In this paper, the first of a series, we assume accretion from a uniformly dense gas with zero angular momentum. Our 1D and 2D simulations explore how X-ray and UV radiation emitted near the black hole regulates the gas supply from large scales. Both 1D and 2D simulations show similar accretion rate and period between peaks in accretion, meaning that the hydro-instabilities that develop in 2D simulations do not affect the mean flow properties. We present a suite of simulations exploring accretion across a large parameter space, including different radiative efficiencies and radiation spectra, black hole masses, density and temperature, $latex T_\infty$, of the neighboring gas. In agreement with previous studies we find regular oscillatory behavior of the accretion rate, with duty cycle $latex \sim 7%$, mean accretion rate 3-6% $latex (T_{\infty}/10^4 {\rm K})^{2.5}$ of the Bondi rate and peak accretion $latex \sim 10$ times the mean. We derive parametric formulas for the period between bursts, the mean accretion rate and the peak luminosity of the bursts and thus provide a formulation of how feedback regulated accretion operates. The temperature profile of the hot ionized gas is crucial in determining the accretion rate, while the period of the bursts is proportional to the mean size of the Str\”{o}mgren sphere. We also find that softer spectrum of radiation produces higher accretion rate. This study is a first step to model the growth of seed black holes in the early universe and to make a prediction of the number and the luminosity of ultra-luminous X-ray sources in galaxies produced by IMBHs accreting from the interstellar medium.

by Silk, Joe and Nusser, Adi

Force balance considerations put a limit on the rate of AGN radiation momentum output, $latex L/c$, capable of driving galactic superwinds. We show that this condition is insufficient: black holes obeying the observed $latex \mbh -\sigma $ relation cannot supply enough energy in radiation which can drive the gas out by pressure alone. The shortfall is by up to an order of magnitude in most, but not all, cases. We propose that outflow-triggering of star formation by enhancing the intercloud medium turbulent pressure and squeezing clouds can supply the necessary boost, and suggest possible tests of this hypothesis. We further point out that the time-scales for Bondi accretion and for orbital decay of merging clumps by dynamical friction in the nuclear disk around a central black hole both follow a similar scaling with mass, favoring the most massive black holes, but the latter process is up to two orders of magnitude more rapid at $latex z\gtsim 10.$ The combination of accretion and coalescence results in earlier formation of more massive black holes, and, in particular, can account for the masses of the black holes inferred to power AGN at $latex z\sim 6.$

by Shcherbakov, Roman V. and Baganoff, Frederick K.
6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to ApJL

We propose a two-temperature radial inflow-outflow model near Sgr A* with self-consistent feeding and conduction. Stellar winds from individual stars are considered to find the rates of mass injection and energy injection. These source terms help to partially eliminate the boundary conditions on the inflow. Electron thermal conduction is crucial for inhibiting the accretion. Energy diffuses out from several gravitational radii, unbinding more gas at several arcseconds and limiting the accretion rate to <1% of Bondi rate. We successfully fit the X-Ray surface brightness profile found from the extensive Chandra observations and reveal the X-Ray point source in the center. The super-resolution technique allows us to infer the presence and estimate the unabsorbed luminosity $latex L\approx4\cdot10^{32}{\rm erg s^{-1}}$ of the point source. The employed relativistic heat capacity and direct heating of electrons naturally lead to low electron temperature $latex T_e\approx 4\cdot10^{10}$ K near the black hole. Within the same model we fit 86 GHz optically thick emission and obtain the order of magnitude agreement of Faraday rotation measure, thus achieving a single accretion model suitable at all radii.

by Krumholz, Mark R. and Burkert, Andreas
14 pages, 3 figures, emulateapj format, submitted to ApJ

We present a first-principles derivation of the evolution equations describing a thin axisymmetric disk of gas and stars with an arbitrary rotation curve that is kept in a state of marginal gravitational instability and energy equilibrium due to the balance between energy released by accretion and energy lost due to decay of turbulence. Unlike previous analyses of this problem, our results do not depend on an assumed model for the rate of mass and angular momentum transport due to gravitational instability, or on an order-of-magnitude energy equilibrium argument. Instead, we self-consistently determine the position- and time-dependent transport rates from the fluid dynamical equations. We show that there is a steady-state configuration for disks dominated by gravitational instability, and for disks in this state we analytically determine the velocity dispersion, surface density, and rates of mass and angular momentum transport as a function of the gas mass fraction, the rotation curve, and the rate of external accretion onto the disk edge. We show that disks that are initially out of steady state will evolve into it on timescales comparable to the orbital period if the accretion rate is high. Finally, we discuss the implications of these results for the structure of disks in a broad range of environments, including high redshift galaxies, the outer gaseous disks of local galaxies, and accretion disks around protostars.

by Lesur, G. and Ogilvie, G. I.
6 pages, 5 figures, accepted in MNRAS

The mechanism of angular momentum transport in accretion discs has long been debated. Although the magnetorotational instability appears to be a promising process, poorly ionized regions of accretion discs may not undergo this instability. In this letter, we revisit the possibility of transporting angular momentum by turbulent thermal convection. Using high-resolution spectral methods, we show that strongly turbulent convection can drive outward angular momentum transport at a rate that is, under certain conditions, compatible with observations of discs. We find however that the angular momentum transport is always much weaker than the vertical heat transport. These results indicate that convection might be another way to explain global disc evolution, provided that a sufficiently unstable vertical temperature profile can be maintained.

by Sorathia, Kareem A. and Reynolds, Christopher S. and Armitage, Philip J.
8 Pages, 7 Figures ApJ, In Press

We analyze a suite of global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) accretion disk simulations in order to determine whether scaling laws for turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability, discovered via local shearing box studies, are globally robust. The simulations model geometrically-thin disks with zero net magnetic flux and no explicit resistivity or viscosity. We show that the local Maxwell stress is correlated with the self-generated local vertical magnetic field in a manner that is similar to that found in local simulations. Moreover, local patches of vertical field are strong enough to stimulate and control the strength of angular momentum transport across much of the disk. We demonstrate the importance of magnetic linkages (through the low-density corona) between different regions of the disk in determining the local field, and suggest a new convergence requirement for global simulations — the vertical extent of the corona must be fully captured and resolved. Finally, we examine the temporal convergence of the average stress, and show that an initial long-term secular drift in the local flux-stress relation dies away on a time scale that is consistent with turbulent mixing of the initial magnetic field.

by Curir, Anna and de Romeri, Valentina and Murante, Giuseppe
10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for pubblication in “Astrophysics and Space Science”

The bar formation is still an open problem in modern astrophysics. In this paper we present numerical simulation performed with the aim of analyzing the growth of the bar instability inside stellar-gaseous disks, where the star formation is triggered, and a central black hole is present. The aim of this paper is to point out the impact of such a central massive black hole on the growth of the bar. We use N-body-SPH simulations of the same isolated disk-to-halo mass systems harboring black holes with different initial masses and different energy feedback on the surrounding gas. We compare the results of these simulations with the one of the same disk without black hole in its center. We make the same comparison (disk with and without black hole) for a stellar disk in a fully cosmological scenario. A stellar bar, lasting 10 Gyrs, is present in all our simulations. The central black hole mass has in general a mild effect on the ellipticity of the bar but it is never able to destroy it. The black holes grow in different way according their initial mass and their feedback efficiency, the final values of the velocity dispersions and of the black hole masses are near to the phenomenological constraints.

by King, Andrew
invited review, IAU Symposium 267, Co-Evolution of Central Black Holes and Galaxies, B.M. Peterson, R.S. Somerville, and T. Storchi-Bergmann, eds typos in eq (2.2) corrected

I review accretion and outflow in active galactic nuclei. Accretion appears to occur in a series of very small–scale, chaotic events, whose gas flows have no correlation with the large–scale structure of the galaxy or with each other. The accreting gas has extremely low specific angular momentum and probably represents only a small fraction of the gas involved in a galaxy merger, which may be the underlying driver.

Eddington accretion episodes in AGN must be common in order for the supermassive black holes to grow. I show that they produce winds with velocities $latex v \sim 0.1c$ and ionization parameters implying the presence of resonance lines of helium– and hydrogenlike iron. The wind creates a strong cooling shock as it interacts with the interstellar medium of the host galaxy, and this cooling region may be observable in an inverse Compton continuum and lower–excitation emission lines associated with lower velocities. The shell of matter swept up by the shocked wind stalls unless the black hole mass has reached the value $latex M_{\sigma}$ implied by the $latex M – \sigma$ relation. Once this mass is reached, further black hole growth is prevented. If the shocked gas did not cool as asserted above, the resulting (`energy-driven’) outflow would imply a far smaller SMBH mass than actually observed. Minor accretion events with small gas fractions can produce galaxy-wide outflows, including fossil outflows in galaxies where there is little current AGN activity.

by Dutan, Ioana
12 pages, 10 figures, submitted to MNRAS

We present an alternative model for launching relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN) from an accreting Kerr black hole (BH) by converting the accretion disc energy into jet energy, when the rotational energy of the BH is transferred to the inner disc by closed magnetic field lines which connects the BH to the disc (BH-disc magnetic connection). In this way, the available disc energy is increased by the BH rotational energy. We assume that the BH may undergo recurring episodes of its activity with: (i) a first phase when accretion power dominates, and (ii) a second phase when BH spin-down power dominates. In both cases the jet is driven by a low-luminosity, (geometrically) thin accretion disc, as the disc energy is used to launch the jet. We use the general relativistic conservation laws to calculate the mass flow rate into the jets, the launching power of the jets, and the angular momentum transported by the jets. We consider BHs with a spin parameter $latex a_* \geqslant 0.95$, so that the jets are launched from the region inside of the BH ergosphere. The angular momentum removed from the accretion disc is carried away by the disc particles that ultimately form the jets. As far as the BH is concerned, it can (i) spin up by accreting matter and (ii) spin down due to the magnetic counter-acting torque on the BH. We found that a stationary state of the BH ($latex a_* = $ const) can be reached if the mass accretion rate is larger than $latex \dot{m} \sim 0.001$. The maximum value of the BH spin parameter depends on $latex \dot{m}$ being less but close to 0.9982 (Thorne’s model). In addition, the maximum AGN lifetime can be much longer than $latex \sim 10^{7}$ yr when using the BH spin-down power. This result is consistent with the estimation of the maximum AGN lifetime when the AGN output power is provided by the Blandford–Znajek mechanism.

by Noble, Scott C. and Krolik, Julian H. and Hawley, John F.
Accepted for publication in ApJ, 52 pages, 38 figures, AASTEX. High-resolution versions can be found at the following links: http://ccrg.rit.edu/~scn/papers/schwarzstress.ps, http://ccrg.rit.edu/~scn/papers/schwarzstress.pdf

We explore the parameter dependence of inner disk stress in black hole accretion by contrasting the results of a number of simulations, all employing 3-d general relativistic MHD in a Schwarzschild spacetime. Five of these simulations were performed with the intrinsically conservative code HARM3D, which allows careful regulation of the disk aspect ratio, H/R; our simulations span a range in H/R from 0.06 to 0.17. We contrast these simulations with two previously reported simulations in a Schwarzschild spacetime in order to investigate possible dependence of the inner disk stress on magnetic topology. In all cases, much care was devoted to technical issues: ensuring adequate resolution and azimuthal extent, and averaging only over those time-periods when the accretion flow is in approximate inflow equilibrium. We find that the time-averaged radial-dependence of fluid-frame electromagnetic stress is almost completely independent of both disk thickness and poloidal magnetic topology. It rises smoothly inward at all radii (exhibiting no feature associated with the ISCO) until just outside the event horizon, where the stress plummets to zero. Reynolds stress can also be significant near the ISCO and in the plunging region; the magnitude of this stress, however, depends on both disk thickness and magnetic topology. The two stresses combine to make the net angular momentum accreted per unit rest-mass 7-15% less than the angular momentum of the ISCO.

by Hobbs, Alexander and Nayakshin, Sergei and Power, Chris and King, Andrew
19 pages, 17 figures. Submitted to MNRAS

It has long been recognised that the main obstacle to accretion of gas onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is large specific angular momentum. However, while the mean angular momentum in the bulge is very likely to be large, the deviations from the mean can also be significant. Indeed, inside bulges the gas velocity distribution can be randomised by the velocity kicks due to feedback from star formation. Here we perform hydrodynamical simulations of gaseous rotating shells infalling onto an SMBH, attempting to quantify the importance of velocity dispersion in the gas at relatively large distances from the black hole. We implement this dispersion by means of a supersonic turbulent velocity spectrum. We find that, while in the purely rotating case the circularisation process leads to efficient mixing of gas with different angular momentum, resulting in a low accretion rate, the inclusion of turbulence increases this accretion rate by up to several orders of magnitude. We show that this can be understood based on the notion of “ballistic” accretion, whereby dense filaments, created by convergent turbulent flows, travel through the ambient gas largely unaffected by hydrodynamical drag. This prevents the efficient gas mixing that was found in the simulations without turbulence, and allows a fraction of gas to impact the innermost boundary of the simulations directly. Using the ballistic approximation, we derive a simple analytical formula that captures the numerical results to within a factor of a few. Rescaling our results to astrophysical bulges, we argue that this “ballistic” mode of accretion could provide the SMBHs with a sufficient supply of fuel without the need to channel the gas via large-scale discs or bars. We therefore argue that star formation in bulges can be a strong catalyst for SMBH accretion.

by Devecchi, B. and Volonteri, M. and Colpi, M. and Haardt, F.
11 pages, 4 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Galactic nuclei host central massive objects either in the form of supermassive black holes or nuclear stellar clusters. Recent investigations have shown that both components co-exist in at least a few galaxies. In this paper we explore the possibility of a connection between nuclear star clusters and black holes that establishes at the moment of their formation. We here model the evolution of high redshift discs, hosted in dark matter halos with virial temperatures 10^4 K, whose gas has been polluted with metals just above the critical metallicity for fragmentation. A nuclear cluster forms as a result of a central starburst from gas inflowing from the unstable disc. The nuclear stellar cluster provides a suitable environment for the formation of a black hole seed, ensuing from runaway collisions among the most massive stars. Typical masses for the nuclear stellar clusters at the time of black hole formation (z~10) are inthe range 10^4-10^6 solar masses and have half mass radii < 0.5 pc. The black holes forming in these dense, high redshift clusters can have masses in the range ~300-2000 solar masses.

by Yuan, Feng and Bu, Defu
9 pages, 9 figures; submitted to MNRAS

The most important finding of two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of hot accretion flows is that the flow is convectively unstable, because of its inward increase of entropy. As a result, the profile of the mass accretion rate is a function of radius, i.e., only a small fraction of accretion gas available at the outer boundary can finally fall onto the black hole, while the rest is lost in the convective outflows. Radiation is usually neglected in these simulations. When the radiative cooling becomes more and more important, the entropy will increase slower inward. The entropy can even decrease when the radiation becomes stronger than the viscous heating, i.e, the flow enters into the luminous hot accretion flow regime. In the present paper, we investigate the convective instability and correspondingly the profile of accretion rate in the presence of strong radiative cooling by performing two-dimensional hydrodynamical numerical simulation. This problem is important because the profile of the mass accretion rate determines the observational appearance of accretion flows, the growth of black hole, and the evolution of black hole spin. We find that the flow is still strongly convectively unstable, and the radial profile of accretion rate changes little compared to the case of non-radiative flow. This is because the gradient of entropy in the gravitational direction still increases inward although the gradient of entropy decreases.

by Lattanzi, Massimiliano and Montani, Giovanni
6 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Europhysics Letters

We provide a new analysis of the system of partial differential equations describing the radial and vertical equilibria of the plasma in accretion disks. In particular, we show that the partial differential system can be separated once a definite, oscillatory (or hyperbolic) form for the radial dependence of the relevant physical quantities is assumed. The system is thus reduced to an ordinary differential system in the vertical dimensionless coordinate. The resulting equations can be integrated analytically in the limit of small magnetic pressure. We complete our analysis with a direct numerical integration of the more general case. The main result is that a ring-like density profile (i.e., radial oscillations in the mass density) can appear even in the limit of small magnetic pressure.

by Sabha, N. and Witzel, G. and Eckart, A. and Buchholz, R. M. and Bremer, M. and Giessuebel, R. and Garcia-Marin, M. and Kunneriath, D. and Muzic, K. and Schoedel, R. and Straubmeier, C. and Zamaninasab, M. and Zernickel, A.
18 pages, 13 figures, accepted by A&A

We discuss mm-wavelength radio, 2.2-11.8um NIR and 2-10 keV X-ray light curves of the super massive black hole (SMBH) counterpart of Sagittarius A* (SgrA*) near its lowest and highest observed luminosity states. The luminosity during the low state can be interpreted as synchrotron emission from a continuous or even spotted accretion disk. For the high luminosity state SSC emission from THz peaked source components can fully account for the flux density variations observed in the NIR and X-ray domain. We conclude that at near-infrared wavelengths the SSC mechanism is responsible for all emission from the lowest to the brightest flare from SgrA*. For the bright flare event of 4 April 2007 that was covered from the radio to the X-ray domain, the SSC model combined with adiabatic expansion can explain the related peak luminosities and different widths of the flare profiles obtained in the NIR and X-ray regime as well as the non detection in the radio domain.

by Mayer, Lucio and Kazantzidis, Stelios and Escala, Andres and Callegari, Simone
26 pages, 4 Figures, submitted to Nature (includes Supplementary Information)

Observations of distant bright quasars suggest that billion solar mass supermassive black holes (SMBHs) were already in place less than a billion years after the Big Bang. Models in which light black hole seeds form by the collapse of primordial metal-free stars cannot explain their rapid appearance due to inefficient gas accretion. Alternatively, these black holes may form by direct collapse of gas at the center of protogalaxies. However, this requires metal-free gas that does not cool efficiently and thus is not turned into stars, in contrast with the rapid metal enrichment of protogalaxies. Here we use a numerical simulation to show that mergers between massive protogalaxies naturally produce the required central gas accumulation with no need to suppress star formation. Merger-driven gas inflows produce an unstable, massive nuclear gas disk. Within the disk a second gas inflow accumulates more than 100 million solar masses of gas in a sub-parsec scale cloud in one hundred thousand years. The cloud undergoes gravitational collapse, which eventually leads to the formation of a massive black hole. The black hole can grow to a billion solar masses in less than a billion years by accreting gas from the surrounding disk.

by Hopkins, Philip F. and Quataert, Eliot
15 figures, 30 pages. Submitted to MNRAS. Movies of the simulations described here can be found at http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~phopkins/Site/Movies_zoom.html

We use multi-scale SPH simulations to follow the inflow of gas from galactic scales to <0.1pc, where the gas begins to resemble a traditional Keplerian accretion disk. The key ingredients are gas, stars, black holes (BHs), self-gravity, star formation, and stellar feedback. We use ~100 simulations to survey a large parameter space of galaxy properties and subgrid models for the ISM physics. We generate initial conditions for our simulations of galactic nuclei (<~300pc) using galaxy scale simulations, including both major mergers and isolated bar-(un)stable disk galaxies. For sufficiently gas-rich, disk-dominated systems, a series of gravitational instabilities generates large accretion rates of up to 1-10 M_sun/yr onto the BH (at <~10pc, our simulations resemble the ‘bars within bars’ model, but the gas exhibits diverse morphologies, including spirals, rings, clumps, and bars; their duty cycle is modest, complicating attempts to correlate BH accretion with nuclear morphology. At ~1-10pc, the gravitational potential becomes dominated by the BH and bar-like modes are no longer present. However, the gas becomes unstable to a standing, eccentric disk or a single-armed spiral mode (m=1), driving the gas to sub-pc scales. Proper treatment of this mode requires including star formation and the self-gravity of both the stars and gas. We predict correlations between BHAR and SFR at different galactic nuclei: nuclear SF is more tightly coupled to AGN activity, but correlations exist at all scales.

by Shcherbakov, Roman V. and Baganoff, Frederick K.
3 pages, 2 figures; to be published in “The Galactic Center: a Window to the Nuclear Activity of Disk Galaxies”, ed. Mark Morris et al., Astron. Soc. Pacific, 2010

We propose a 2-temperature radial dynamical model of plasma flow near Sgr A* and fit the bremsstrahlung emission to extensive quiescent X-Ray Chandra data. The model extends from several arcseconds to black hole (BH) gravitational radius, describing the outer accretion flow together with the infalling region. The model incorporates electron heat conduction, relativistic heat capacity of particles and feeding by stellar winds. Stellar winds from each star are considered separately as sources of mass, momentum and energy. Self-consistent search for the stagnation and sonic points is performed. Most of gas is found to outflow from the region. The accretion rate is limited to below 1% of Bondi rate due to the effect of thermal conduction enhanced by entropy production in a turbulent flow. The X-Ray brightness profile proves too steep near the BH, thus a synchrotron self-Compton point source is inferred with luminosity L=3×10^32erg/s. We fit the sub-mm emission from the inner flow, thus aiming at a single model of Sgr A* accretion suitable at any radius.

by Giri, Kinsuk and Chakrabarti, Sandip K. and Samanta, Madan M. and Ryu, Dongsu
19 pages, 13 figures, 1 Table MNRAS (In press)

We study the accretion processes on a black hole by numerical simulation. We use a grid based finite difference code for this purpose. We scan the parameter space spanned by the specific energy and the angular momentum and compare the time-dependent solutions with those obtained from theoretical considerations. We found several important results (a) The time dependent flow behaves close to a constant height model flow in the pre-shock region and a flow with vertical equilibrium in the post-shock region. (c) The infall time scale in the post-shock region is several times higher than the free-fall time scale. (b) There are two discontinuities in the flow, one being just outside of the inner sonic point. Turbulence plays a major role in determining the locations of these discontinuities. (d) The two discontinuities oscillate with two different frequencies and behave as a coupled harmonic oscillator. A Fourier analysis of the variation of the outer shock location indicates higher power at the lower frequency and lower power at the higher frequency. The opposite is true when the analysis of the inner shock is made. These behaviours will have implications in the spectral and timing properties of black hole candidates.

by Tanaka, Takamitsu and Menou, Kristen
46 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to ApJ

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will detect gravitational wave signals from coalescing pairs of massive black holes in the total mass range (10^5 – 10^7)/Msol out to cosmological distances. Identifying and monitoring the electromagnetic counterparts of these events would enable cosmological studies and offer new probes of gas physics around well-characterized massive black holes. Milosavljevic & Phinney (2005) proposed that a circumbinary disk around a binary of mass ~10^6 Msol will emit an accretion-powered X-ray afterglow approximately one decade after the gravitational wave event. We revisit this scenario by using Green’s function solutions to calculate the temporal viscous evolution and the corresponding electromagnetic signature of the circumbinary disk. Our calculations suggest that an electromagnetic counterpart may become observable as a rapidly brightening source soon after the merger, i.e. several years earlier than previously thought. The afterglow can reach super-Eddington luminosities without violating the local Eddington flux limit. It is emitted in the soft X-ray by the innermost circumbinary disk, but it may be partially reprocessed at optical and infrared frequencies. We also find that the spreading disk becomes increasingly geometrically thick close to the central object as it evolves, indicating that the innermost flow could become advective and radiatively inefficient, and generate a powerful outflow. We conclude that the mergers of massive black holes detected by LISA offer unique opportunities for monitoring on humanly tractable timescales the viscous evolution of accretion flows and the emergence of outflows around massive black holes with precisely known masses, spins and orientations.

by Farris, Brian D. and Liu, Yuk Tung and Shapiro, Stuart L.
33 pages, 24 Figures, two tables. Submitted to PRD

Merging supermassive black hole-black hole (BHBH) binaries produced in galaxy mergers are promising sources of detectable gravitational waves. If such a merger takes place in a gaseous environment, there is a possibility of a simultaneous detection of electromagnetic and gravitational radiation, as the stirring, shock heating and accretion of the gas may produce variability and enhancements in the electromagnetic flux. Such a simultaneous detection can provide a wealth of opportunities to study gravitational physics, accretion physics, and cosmology. We investigate this scenario by performing fully general relativistic, hydrodynamic simulations of merging, equal-mass, nonspinning BHBH binaries embedded in gas clouds. We evolve the metric using the BSSN formulation with standard moving puncture gauge conditions and handle the hydrodynamics via a high-resolution shock-capturing (HRSC) scheme. We consider both “binary Bondi accretion” in which the binary is at rest relative to the ambient gas cloud, as well as “binary Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton accretion” in which the binary moves relative to the gas cloud. The gas cloud is assumed to be homogeneous far from the binary and governed by a \Gamma-law equation of state. We vary \Gamma between 4/3 and 5/3. For each simulation, we compute the gas flow and accretion rate and estimate the electromagnetic luminosity due to bremsstrahlung and synchrotron emission. We find evidence for significant enhancements in both the accretion rate and luminosity over values for a single black hole of the same mass as the binary. We estimate that this luminosity enhancement should be detectable by LSST for a 10^6 M_sun binary in a hot gas cloud of density n~10/cm^3 and temperature T~10^6 K at z=1, reaching a maximum of L~3×10^43 erg/s, with the emission peaking in the visible band.

by Shapiro, Stuart L.
9 pages, 5 figures; submitted to PRD

Tidal torques from a binary black hole (BHBH) empty out the central regions in any circumbinary gaseous accretion disk. The balance between tidal torques and viscosity maintain the inner edge of the disk at a radius r ~ 1.5a — 2a, where a is the binary semimajor axis. Eventually, the inspiraling binary decouples from disk and merges, leaving behind a central hollow (”donut hole”) in the disk orbiting the remnant black hole. We present a simple, time-dependent, Newtonian calculation that follows the secular (viscous) evolution of the disk as it fills up the hollow down to the black hole innermost stable circular orbit and then relaxes to stationary equilibrium. We use our model to calculate the electromagnetic radiation (”afterglow”) spectrum emitted during this transient accretion epoch. Observing the temporal increase in the total electromagnetic flux and the hardening of the spectrum as the donut hole fills may help confirm a BHBH merger detected by a gravitational wave interferometer. We show how the very existence of the initial hollow can lead to super-Eddington accretion during this secular phase if the rate is not very far below Eddington prior to decoupling. Our model, though highly idealized, may be useful in establishing some of the key parameters, thermal emission features and scalings that characterize this transient. It can serve as a guide in the design and calibration of future radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulations in general relativity.

by Bhattacharya, Debbijoy and Ghosh, Shubhrangshu and Mukhopadhyay, Banibrata
26 pages including 7 figures; submitted in ApJ

The mechanism by which outflows and plausible jets are driven from black hole systems, still remains observationally elusive. Notwithstanding, several observational evidences and deeper theoretical insights reveal that accretion and outflow/jet are strongly correlated. Here, we model an advective disk-outflow coupled dynamics, incorporating explicitly the vertical flux. Inter-connecting dynamics of outflow and accretion essentially upholds the conservation laws. We investigate the properties of the disk-outflow surface and its strong dependence on the rotation parameter of the black hole. The energetics of disk-outflow strongly depend on mass, accretion rate and spin of the black holes. The model clearly shows that the outflow power extracted from the disk increases strongly with the spin of the black hole, inferring that the power of the observed astrophysical jets has a proportional correspondence with the spin of the central object. In case of blazars (BL Lacs and Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars), most of their emission are believed to be originated from their jets. It is observed that BL Lacs are relatively low luminous than Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs). The luminosity might be linked to the power of the jet, which in turn reflects that the nuclear regions of the BL Lac objects have a relatively low spinning black hole compared to that in the case of FSRQ. If the extreme gravity is the source to power strong outflows and jets, then spin of the black hole, perhaps, might be the fundamental parameter to account for the observed astrophysical processes in an accretion powered system.

by Dotti, M. and Volonteri, M. and Perego, A. and Colpi, M. and Ruszkowski, M. and Haardt, F.
11 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Using high resolution hydrodynamical simulations, we explore the spin evolution of massive dual black holes orbiting inside a circumnuclear disc, relic of a gas-rich galaxy merger. The black holes spiral inwards from initially eccentric co or counter-rotating coplanar orbits relative to the disc’s rotation, and accrete gas that is carrying a net angular momentum. As the black hole mass grows, its spin changes in strength and direction due to its gravito-magnetic coupling with the small-scale accretion disc. We find that the black hole spins loose memory of their initial orientation, as accretion torques suffice to align the spins with the angular momentum of their orbit on a short timescale (<1-2 Myr). A residual off-set in the spin direction relative to the orbital angular momentum remains, at the level of <10 degrees for the case of a cold disc, and <30 degrees for a warmer disc. Alignment in a cooler disc is more effective due to the higher coherence of the accretion flow near each black hole that reflects the large-scale coherence of the disc’s rotation. If the massive black holes coalesce preserving the spin directions set after formation of a Keplerian binary, the relic black hole resulting from their coalescence receives a relatively small gravitational recoil. The distribution of recoil velocities inferred from a simulated sample of massive black hole binaries has median <70 km/s much smaller than the median resulting from an isotropic distribution of spins.

by Fragile, P. Chris
5 pages, 4 figures, accepted to ApJ Letters

One of the primary means of determining the spin of an astrophysical black hole is by actually measuring the inner radius of a surrounding accretion disk and using that to infer the spin. By comparing a number of different estimates of the inner radius from simulations of tilted accretion disks with differing black-hole spins, we show that such a procedure can give quite wrong answers. Over the range 0 <= a/M <= 0.9, we find that, for moderately thick disks (H/r ~ 0.2) with modest tilt (15 degrees), the inner radius is nearly independent of spin. This result is likely dependent on tilt, such that for larger tilts, it may even be that the inner radius would increase with increasing spin. In the opposite limit, we confirm through numerical simulations of untilted disks that, in the limit of zero tilt, the inner radius recovers approximately the expected dependence on spin.

by Anderson, Matthew and Lehner, Luis and Megevand, Miguel and Neilsen, David
9 pages, 6 figures

We simulate the possible emission from a disk perturbed by a recoiling super-massive black hole. To this end, we study radiation transfer from the system incorporating bremsstrahlung emission from a Maxwellian plasma and absorption given by Kramer’s opacity law modified to incorporate blackbody effects. We employ this model in the radiation transfer integration to compute the luminosity at several frequencies, and compare with previous bremsstrahlung luminosity estimations from a transparent limit (in which the emissivity is integrated over the computational domain and over all frequencies) and with a simple thermal emission model. We find close agreement between the radiation transfer results and the estimated bremsstrahlung luminosity from previous work for electromagnetic signals above $latex 10^{14}$ Hz. For lower frequencies, we find a self-eclipsing behavior in the disk, resulting in a strong intensity variability connected to the orbital period of the disk.

by Sinha, Monika and Rajesh, S. R. and Mukhopadhyay, Banibrata
13 pages including 8 figures; to appear in Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics

We investigate the transition of a radiatively inefficient phase of viscous two temperature accreting flow to a cooling dominated phase and vice versa around black holes. Based on a global sub-Keplerian accretion disc model in steady state, including explicit cooling processes self-consistently, we show that general advective accretion flow passes through various phases during its infall towards a black hole. Bremsstrahlung, synchrotron and inverse Comptonization of soft photons are considered as possible cooling mechanisms. Hence the flow governs much lower electron temperature ~10^8 – 10^{9.5}K compared to the hot protons of temperature ~10^{10.2} – 10^{11.8}K in the range of accretion rate in Eddington units 0.01 – 100. Therefore, the solutions may potentially explain the hard X-rays and gamma-rays emitted from AGNs and X-ray binaries. We finally compare the solutions for two different regimes of viscosity and conclude that a weakly viscous flow is expected to be cooling dominated compared to its highly viscous counterpart which is radiatively inefficient. The flow is successfully able to reproduce the observed luminosities of the under-fed AGNs and quasars (e.g. Sgr A*), ultra-luminous X-ray sources (e.g. SS433), as well as the highly luminous AGNs and ultra-luminous quasars (e.g. PKS 0743-67) at different combinations of mass accretion rate, ratio of specific heats.

by Rajesh, S. R. and Mukhopadhyay, Banibrata
25 pages including 22 figures; to appear in MNRAS

We investigate the viscous two temperature accretion discs around rotating black holes. We describe the global solution of accretion flows with a sub-Keplerian angular momentum profile, by solving the underlying conservation equations including explicit cooling processes selfconsistently. Bremsstrahlung, synchrotron and inverse Comptonization of soft photons are considered as possible cooling mechanisms, for sub-Eddington, Eddington and super-Eddington mass accretion rates around Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes with a Kerr parameter 0.998. It is found that the flow, during its infall from the Keplerian to sub-Keplerian transition region to the black hole event horizon, passes through various phases of advection — general advective paradigm to radiatively inefficient phase and vice versa. Hence the flow governs much lower electron temperature ~10^8-10^{9.5} K, in the range of accretion rate in Eddington units 0.01 <~ \mdot <~ 100, compared to the hot protons of temperature ~ 10^{10.2} – 10^{11.8}K. Therefore, the solution may potentially explain the hard X-rays and \gamma-rays emitted from AGNs and X-ray binaries. We then show that a weakly viscous flow is expected to be cooling dominated, particularly at the inner region of the disc, compared to its highly viscous counterpart which is radiatively inefficient. With all the solutions in hand, we finally reproduce the observed luminosities of the under-fed AGNs and quasars (e.g. Sgr A^*) to ultra-luminous X-ray sources (e.g. SS433), at different combinations of input parameters such as mass accretion rate, ratio of specific heats. The set of solutions also predicts appropriately the luminosity observed in the highly luminous AGNs and ultra-luminous quasars (e.g. PKS 0743-67).

by Li, Guang-Xing and Yuan, Ye-Fei and Cao, Xinwu
15 pages, 13 figures

Based on a new estimation of their thickness, the global properties of relativistic slim accretion disks are investigated in this work. The resulting emergent spectra are calculated using relativistic ray-tracing method. The angular dependence of the disk luminosity, the effects of the heat advection and the effect of disk thickness on the estimation of the black hole spin and accretion rate are discussed. The improvements compared to previous works are that we use self-consistent disk equations and we consider the disk self-shadowing effect. We find that at moderate accretion rate, with inclusion of the heat advection effect, radiation trapped in the outer region of the accretion disks will escape in the inner region of the accretion disk and contribute to the emergent spectra. At high accretion rate, large inclination and large black hole spin, both the disk thickness and the heat advection have significant influence on the emergent spectra. Consequently, these effects will influence the measurement of the black hole spin based on the spectral fitting and influence the angular dependence of luminosity.

by Corrales, Lia R. and Haiman, Zoltán and MacFadyen, Andrew
16 pages with 14 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Finding electromagnetic (EM) counterparts of future gravitational wave (GW) sources would bring rich scientific benefits. A promising possibility, in the case of the coalescence of a super-massive black hole binary (SMBHB), is that prompt emission from merger-induced disturbances in a supersonic circumbinary disk may be detectable. We follow the post-merger evolution of a thin, zero-viscosity circumbinary gas disk with two-dimensional simulations, using the hydrodynamic code FLASH. We analyze perturbations arising from the 530 km/s recoil of a 10^6 M_sun binary, oriented in the plane of the disk, assuming either an adiabatic or a pseudo-isothermal equation of state for the gas. We find that a single-armed spiral shock wave forms and propagates outward, sweeping up about 20% of the mass of the disk. The morphology and evolution of the perturbations agrees well with those of caustics predicted to occur in a collisionless disk. Assuming that the disk radiates nearly instantaneously to maintain a constant temperature, we estimate the amount of dissipation and corresponding post-merger light-curve. The luminosity rises steadily on the time-scale of months, and reaches few times 10^{43} erg/s, corresponding to about 10% of the Eddington luminosity of the central SMBHB. We also analyze the case in which gravitational wave emission results in a 5% mass loss in the merger remnant. The mass-loss reduces the shock overdensities and the overall luminosity of the disk by 15-20%, without any other major effects on the spiral shock pattern.

by Ulubay-Siddiki, A. and Gerhard, O. and Arnaboldi, M.
13 pages, 21 figures, published in MNRAS

We consider warped equilibrium configurations for stellar and gaseous disks in the Keplerian force-field of a supermassive black hole, assuming that the self-gravity of the disk provides the only acting torques. Modeling the disk as a collection of concentric circular rings, and computing the torques in the non-linear regime, we show that stable, strongly warped precessing equilibria are possible. These solutions exist for a wide range of disk-to-black hole mass ratios $latex M_d/M_{bh}$, can span large warp angles of up to $latex \pm\sim 120\deg$, have inner and outer boundaries, and extend over a radial range of a factor of typically two to four. These equilibrium configurations obey a scaling relation such that in good approximation $latex \phidot/\Omega\propto M_d/M_{bh}$ where $latex \phidot$ is the (retrograde) precession frequency and $latex \Omega$ is a characteristic orbital frequency in the disk. Stability was determined using linear perturbation theory and, in a few cases, confirmed by numerical integration of the equations of motion. Most of the precessing equilibria are found to be stable, but some are unstable. The main result of this study is that highly warped disks near black holes can persist for long times without any persistent forcing other than by their self-gravity. The possible relevance of this to galactic nuclei is briefly discussed.

by Beuther, H. and Walsh, A. J. and Longmore, S. N.
21 pages, 32 figures, accepted for ApJS. A high-resolution version can be found at http://www.mpia.de/homes/beuther/papers.html

To better understand the physical properties of accretion disks in high-mass star formation, we present a study of a 12 high-mass accretion disk candidates observed at high spatial resolution with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) in the NH3 (4,4) and (5,5) lines. Almost all sources were detected in NH3, directly associated with CH3OH Class II maser emission. From the remaining eleven sources, six show clear signatures of rotation and/or infall motions. These signatures vary from velocity gradients perpendicular to the outflows, to infall signatures in absorption against ultracompact HII regions, to more spherical infall signatures in emission. Although our spatial resolution is ~1000AU, we do not find clear Keplerian signatures in any of the sources. Furthermore, we also do not find flattened structures. In contrast to this, in several of the sources with rotational signatures, the spatial structure is approximately spherical with sizes exceeding 10^4 AU, showing considerable clumpy sub-structure at even smaller scales. This implies that on average typical Keplerian accretion disks — if they exist as expected — should be confined to regions usually smaller than 1000AU. It is likely that these disks are fed by the larger-scale rotating envelope structure we observe here. Furthermore, we do detect 1.25cm continuum emission in most fields of view.

by Punsly, Brian and Igumenshchev, Igor V. and Hirose, Shigenobu
To appear in ApJ. The referenced movies can be found in the electronic on-line journal or http://85.20.11.14/punsly/PHI/movies/

This article reports on three-dimensional (3-D) MHD simulations of non-rotating and rapidly rotating black holes and the adjacent black hole accretion disk magnetospheres. A particular emphasis is placed on the vertical magnetic flux that is advected inward from large radii and threads the equatorial plane near the event horizon. In both cases of non-rotating and rotating black holes, the existence of a significant vertical magnetic field in this region is like a switch that creates powerful jets. There are many similarities in the vertical flux dynamics in these two cases in spite of the tremendous enhancement of azimuthal twisting of the field lines and enhancement of the jet power because of an “ergospheric disk” in the Kerr metric. A 3-D approach is essential because two-dimensional axisymmetric flows are incapable of revealing the nature of vertical flux near a black hole. Poloidal field lines from the ergospheric accretion region have been visualized in 3-D and much of the article is devoted to a formal classification of the different manifestations of vertical flux in the Kerr case.

by Silant’ev, N. A. and Piotrovich, M. Yu. and Gnedin, Yu. N. and Natsvlishvili, T. M.
7 pages

We consider the integral light polarization from optically thick accretion disks. Basic mechanism is the multiple light scattering on free electrons (Milne’s problem) in magnetized atmosphere. The Faraday rotation of the polarization plane changes both the value of integral polarization degree $latex p$ and the position angle $latex \chi $. Besides, the characteristic spectra of these values appear. We are testing the known relation between magnetic field of black hole at the horizon $latex B_{BH}$ and its mass $latex M_{BH}$, and the usual power-law distribution inside the accretion disk. The formulae for $latex p(\lambda)$ and $latex \chi(\lambda)$ depend on a number of parameters describing the particular dependence of magnetic field in accretion disk (the index of power-law distribution, the spin of the black hole, etc.). Comparison of our theoretical values of $latex p$ and $latex \chi $ with observed polarization can help us to choice more realistic values of parameters if the accretion disk mechanism gives the main contribution to the observed integral polarization. The main content is connected with estimation of validity of the relation between $latex B_{BH}$ and $latex M_{BH}$. We found for the AGN NGC 4258 that such procedure does not confirm the mentioned correlation between magnetic field and mass of black hole.

by Svoboda, J. and Dovciak, M. and Goosmann, R. W. and Karas, V.
18 pages, 18 figures, accepted to Astronomy and Astrophysics

Spin of an accreting black hole can be determined by spectroscopy of the emission and absorption features produced in the inner regions of an accretion disc. We discuss the method employing the relativistic line profiles of iron in the X-ray domain, where the emergent spectrum is blurred by general relativistic effects. Precision of spectra fitting procedure could be compromised by inappropriate account of the angular distribution of the disc emission. Often a unique profile is assumed, invariable over the entire range of radii in the disc and energy in the spectral band. We study how sensitive the spin determination is to the assumptions about the intrinsic angular distribution of the emitted photons. We find that the uncertainty of the directional emission distribution translates to 20% uncertainty in determination of the marginally stable orbit. By assuming a rotating black hole in the centre of an accretion disc, we perform radiation transfer computations of an X-ray irradiated disc atmosphere to determine the directionality of outgoing X-rays in the 2-10 keV energy band. We implemented the simulation results as a new extension to the KY software package for X-ray spectra fitting of relativistic accretion disc models. Although the parameter space is rather complex, leading to a rich variety of possible outcomes, we find that on average the isotropic directionality reproduces our model data to the best precision. Our results also suggest that an improper usage of limb darkening can partly mimic a steeper profile of radial emissivity. We demonstrate these results on the case of XMM-Newton observation of the Seyfert galaxy MCG-6-30-15, for which we construct confidence levels of chi squared statistics, and on the simulated data for the future X-ray IXO mission.

by Alig, Christian and Burkert, Andreas and Johansson, Peter H. and Schartmann, Marc
10 pages, 6 figures, submitted to MNRAS

We simulate clouds in the Galactic Centre (GC) crossing over the black hole in parts and present this as a possible formation mechanism for the observed stellar disks in the GC through the redistribution of angular momentum by colliding material with opposite angular momentum. A parameter study using six high resolution simulations of an isothermal cloud of constant density falling onto the black hole and crossing over it in parts demonstrates that this mechanism is able to reproduce the observed disk properties in the GC. The evolution of the ensuing accretion disks is highly non-linear with the redistribution of the angular momentum through dissipative processes being a dominant effect. We analyse the resulting Toomre unstable, eccentric gaseous disk and show that this already yields a good comparison with the observed stellar disk size and eccentricity in the GC. The best simulation results in an outer radius of 1 pc, a mass of 10$latex ^4$ M$latex _{\sun}$ and an eccentricity of 0.24 for the Toomre unstable disk, which compares well with the observations.

by Martin, Rebecca G. and Pringle, J. E. and Tout, Christopher A.
Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We model the overall shape of an accretion disc in a semi-detached binary system in which mass is transfered on to a spinning black hole the spin axis of which is misaligned with the orbital rotation axis. We assume the disc is in a steady state. Its outer regions are subject to differential precession caused by tidal torques of the companion star. These tend to align the outer parts of the disc with the orbital plane. Its inner regions are subject to differential precession caused by the Lense-Thirring effect. These tend to align the inner parts of the disc with the spin of the black hole. We give full numerical solutions for the shape of the disc for some particular disc parameters. We then show how an analytic approximation to these solutions can be obtained for the case when the disc surface density varies as a power law with radius. These analytic solutions for the shape of the disc are reasonably accurate even for large misalignments and can be simply applied for general disc parameters. They are particularly useful when the numerical solutions would be slow.

by Perego, A. and Dotti, M. and Colpi, M. and Volonteri, M.
20 pages, 15 figures (jpg or png format), 3 tables; to be published in MNRAS

In this paper, we explore the gravitomagnetic interaction of a black hole (BH) with a misaligned accretion disc to study BH spin precession and alignment jointly with BH mass and spin parameter evolution, under the assumption that the disc is continually fed, in its outer region, by matter with angular momentum fixed on a given direction. We develop an iterative scheme based on the adiabatic approximation to study the BH-disc coevolution: in this approach, the accretion disc transits through a sequence of quasi-steady warped states (Bardeen-Petterson effect) and interacts with the BH until the BH spin aligns with the outer angular momentum direction. For a BH aligning with a co-rotating disc, the fractional increase in mass is typically less than a few percent, while the spin modulus can increase up to a few tens of percent. The alignment timescale is between ~ 100 thousands and ~ 1 millions years for a maximally rotating BH accreting at the Eddington rate. BH-disc alignment from an initially counter-rotating disc tends to be more efficient compared to the specular co-rotating case due to the asymmetry seeded in the Kerr metric: counter-rotating matter carries a larger and opposite angular momentum when crossing the innermost stable orbit, so that the spin modulus decreases faster and so the relative inclination angle.

by Miyoshi, M. and Shen, Zhi-Qiang and Oyama, T. and Takahashi, R. and Kato, Y.
5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to MN Letter

We report the detection of radio QPOs with structure changes using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) at 43 GHz.

We found conspicuous patterned changes of the structure with P = 16.8, 22.2, 31.4, & 56.4 min, roughly in a 3:4:6:10 ratio. The first two periods show a rotating one-arm structure, while the P = 31.4 min shows a rotating 3-arm structure, as if viewed edge-on. At the central 50 microasec the P = 56.4 min period shows a double amplitude variation of those in its surroundings.

Spatial distributions of the oscillation periods suggest that the disk of SgrA* is roughly edge-on, rotating around an axis with PA = -10 degree. Presumably, the observed VLBI images of SgrA* remain several features of the black hole accretion disk of SgrA* in spite of being obscured and broadened by scattering of surrounding plasma.

by Murphy, K. D. and Yaqoob, T. and Dovčiak, M. and Karas, V.
7 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

Future X-ray instrumentation is expected to allow us to significantly improve the constraints derivedfrom the Fe K lines in AGN, such as the black-hole angular momentum (spin) and the inclination angle of the putative accretion disk. We consider the possibility that measurements of the persistent, time-averaged Fe K line emission from the disk could be supplemented by the observation of a localized flare, or “hotspot”, orbiting close to the black hole. Although observationally challenging, such measurements would recover some of the information loss that is inherent to the radially-integrated line profiles. We present calculations for this scenario to assess the extent to which, in principle, black-hole spin may be measured. We quantify the feasibility of this approach using realistic assumptions about likely measurement uncertainties.

by Soker, Noam
Accepted by MNRAS Letters

I propose a feedback model to explain the correlation between the supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass and the host galaxy bulge mass. The feedback is based on narrow jets that are launched by the central SMBH, and expel large amounts of mass to large distances. The condition is that the jets do not penetrate through the inflowing gas, such that they can deposit their energy in the inner region where the bulge is formed. For that to occur, the SMBH must move relative to the inflowing gas, such that the jets continuously encounter fresh gas. Taking into account the relative motion of the SMBH and the inflowing gas I derive a relation between the mass accreted by the SMBH and the mass that is not expelled, and is assumed to form the bulge. This relation is not linear, but rather the SMBH to bulge mass ratio increases slowly with mass. The same mechanism was applied to suppress star formation in cooling flow clusters, making a tighter connection between the feedback in galaxy formation and cooling flows.

by Garofalo, David
Phys.RevD accepted

We study the spin dependence of accretion onto rotating Kerr black holes using analytic techniques. In its linear regime, angular momentum transport in MHD turbulent accretion flow involves the generation of radial magnetic field connecting plasma in a differentially rotating flow. We take a first principles approach, highlighting the constraint that limits the generation and amplification of radial magnetic fields, stemming from the transfer of energy from mechanical to magnetic form. Because the energy transferred in magnetic form is ultimately constrained by gravitational potential energy or Killing energy, the spin-dependence of the latter allows us to derive spin-dependent constraints on the success of the accreting plasma to expel its angular momentum and accrete. We find an inverse relationship between this ability and black hole spin. If this radial magnetic field generation forms the basis for angular momentum transfer in accretion flows, accretion rates involving Kerr black holes are expected to be lower as the black hole spin increases in the prograde sense.

by Dai, Lixin and Fuerst, Steven V. and Blandford, Roger
16 pages, 11 figures, submitted to MNRAS; corrected typos

We present simulated results of quasi-periodic flares generated by the inelastic collisions of a star bound to a super-massive black hole (SMBH) and its attendant accretion disc. We show that the behavior of the quasi-periodicity is affected by the mass and spin of the black hole and the orbital elements of the stellar orbit. We also evaluate the possibility of extracting useful information on these parameters and verifying the character of the Kerr metric from such quasi-periodic signals. Comparisons are made with the observed optical outbursts of OJ287, infrared flares from the Galactic center and X-ray variability in RE J1034+396.

by Garofalo, David
ApJL accepted

We explore the connection between black hole spin and AGN power by addressing the consequences underlying the assumption in the recent literature that the gap region between accretion disks and black holes is fundamental in producing strong, spin-dependent, horizon-threading magnetic fields. Under the additional assumption that jets and outflows in AGN are produced by the Blandford-Znajek and Blandford-Payne mechanisms, we show that maximum jet/outflow power is achieved for accretion onto black holes having highly retrograde spin parameter, an energetically excited yet unstable gravitomagnetic configuration.

by Megevand, Miguel and Anderson, Matthew and Frank, Juhan and Hirschmann, Eric W. and Lehner, Luis and Liebling, Steven L. and Motl, Patrick M. and Neilsen, David
10 pages, 13 figures

The merger process of a binary black hole system can have a strong impact on a circumbinary disk. In the present work we study the effect of both central mass reduction (due to the energy loss through gravitational waves) and a possible black hole recoil (due to asymmetric emission of gravitational radiation). For the mass reduction case and recoil directed along the disk’s angular momentum, oscillations are induced in the disk which then modulate the internal energy and bremsstrahlung luminosities. On the other hand, when the recoil direction has a component orthogonal to the disk’s angular momentum, the disk’s dynamics are strongly impacted, giving rise to relativistic shocks. The shock heating leaves its signature in our proxies for radiation, the total internal energy and bremsstrahlung luminosity. Interestingly, for cases where the kick velocity is below the smallest orbital velocity in the disk (a likely scenario in real AGN), we observe a common, characteristic pattern in the internal energy of the disk. Variations in kick velocity simply provide a phase offset in the characteristic pattern implying that observations of such a signature could yield a measure of the kick velocity through electromagnetic signals alone.

by Yuan, Ye-Fei and Cao, Xinwu and Huang, Lei and Shen, Zhi-Qiang
13 pages, 6 figures, ApJ accepted

In fully general relativity, we calculate the images of the radiatively inefficient accretion flow (RIAF) surrounding a Kerr black hole with arbitrary spins, inclination angles, and observational wavelengths. For the same initial conditions, such as the fixed accretion rate, it is found that the intrinsic size and radiation intensity of the images become larger, but the images become more compact in the inner region, while the size of the black hole shadow decreases with the increase of the black hole spin. With the increase of the inclination angles, the shapes of the black hole shadows change and become smaller, even disappear at all due to the obscuration by the thick disks. For median inclination angles, the radial velocity observed at infinity is larger because of both the rotation and radial motion of the fluid in the disk, which results in the luminous part of the images is much brighter. For larger inclination angles, such as the disk is edge on, the emission becomes dimmer at longer observational wavelengths (such as at 7.0mm and 3.5mm wavelengths), or brighter at shorter observational wavelengths (such as at 1.3 mm wavelength) than that of the face on case, except for the high spin and high inclination images. These complex behaviors are due to the combination of the Lorentz boosting effect and the radiative absorption in the disk. We hope our results are helpful to determine the spin parameter of the black hole in low luminosity sources, such as the Galactic center. A primary analysis by comparison with the observed sizes of Sgr A* at millimeters strongly suggests that the disk around the central black hole at Sgr A* is highly inclined or the central black hole is rotating fast.

by Madau, P. and Abel, T. and Bender, P. and Di Matteo, T. and Haiman, Z. and Hughes, S. and Loeb, A. and Phinney, E. and Primack, J. and Prince, T. and Rees, M. and Richstone, D. and Schutz, B. and Thorne, K. and Volonteri, M.
Science White Paper submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey

This White Paper to the National Academy of Sciences Astro2010 Decadal Review Committee outlines some of the outstanding questions regarding the assembly history of Massive Black Holes in the nuclei of galaxies and the revolutionary contributions anticipated in this field from low-frequency gravitational wave astronomy.