Three-dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flows

By I. Igumenshchev, Ramesh Narayan, Marek Abramowicz. 2003

411 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present three-dimensional MHD simulations of rotating radiatively inefficient accretion flows onto black holes. We continuously inject magnetized matter into the computational domain near the outer boundary and run the calculations long enough for the resulting accretion flow to reach a quasi-steady state. We have studied two limiting cases for the geometry of the injected magnetic field: pure toroidal field and pure poloidal field. In the case of toroidal field injection, the accreting matter forms a nearly axisymmetric, geometrically thick, turbulent accretion disk. The disk resembles in many respects the convection-dominated accretion flows found in previous numerical and analytical investigations of viscous hydrodynamic flows. Models with poloidal field injection evolve through two distinct phases. In an initial transient phase, the flow forms a relatively flattened, quasi-Keplerian disk with a hot corona and a bipolar outflow. However, when the flow later achieves steady state, it changes in character completely. The magnetized accreting gas becomes two-phase, with most of the volume being dominated by a strong dipolar magnetic field from which a thermal low-density wind flows out. Accretion occurs mainly via narrow slowly rotating radial streams that "diffuse" through the magnetic field with the help of magnetic reconnection events.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Geophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3c4037f00506b667ae24045f60e7dae68d931ab4

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Ramesh Narayan
2. A. Tchekhovskoy
3. F. Yuan
4. A. Sa̧dowski
5. J. McKinney
6. T. Johannsen
7. J. Dexter
8. Yucong Zhu

In Geophysics

1. Ramesh Narayan
2. D. Proga
3. A. Sa̧dowski
4. A. Tchekhovskoy
5. Yucong Zhu
6. F. Yuan
7. J. McKinney
8. De-Fu Bu

Citations in the corpus

• Energy, momentum and mass outflows and feedback from thick accretion discs around rotating black holes (2013, background): “(Note that, historically, the original conceptual paper on the MAD solution by Narayan et al. (2003) considered thin discs, whereas the numerical simulations by Igumenshchev et al. (2003) which motivated this paper dealt with ADAFs.)”
• General relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of magnetically choked accretion flows around black holes (2012, methodology): “The 3D pseudo-Newtonian (PN) MHD simulations by Igumenshchev et al. (2003) used a Cartesian grid with ∆φ = π/2.”
• GRMHD simulations of magnetized advection‐dominated accretion on a non‐spinning black hole: role of outflows (2012, methodology): “We could have avoided the MAD regime more effectively by starting the simulation with a purely toroidal field, as in Model A of Igumenshchev et al. (2003) or Model A0.”
• NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF HOT ACCRETION FLOWS. III. REVISITING WIND PROPERTIES USING THE TRAJECTORY APPROACH (2015, result): “Moreover, MHD simulations yield very similar results that typically s ∼ 0.5 − 1 (e.g., Stone & Pringle 2001; Hawley & Balbus 2002; Igumenshchev et al. 2003; Pen et al. 2003; see review in Yuan, Wu & Bu 2012).”
• Stability of relativistic jets from rotating, accreting black holes via fully three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations (2008, background): “Forxray binaries, jets in the low-hard states could be driven by dipolar fields that could even accumulate to the point of lowering accretion rates (Igumenshchev et al. 2003), intermediate to soft states could involve higher-order multipole moments, and transient jets from the hard-to-soft…”
• Flaring Activity of Sagittarius A* at 43 and 22 GHz: Evidence for Expanding Hot Plasma (2006, background): “…al. 2003) supports this picture, but leaves unanswered the question of whether infalling material finds itself in a convective flow (Narayan et al. 2002), a (magnetically-driven) low-velocity outflow (Blandford & Begelman 1999, Igumenshchev et al. 2003), or a fast jet (Yuan, Markoff & Falcke 2002).”
• Neutrino-dominated Accretion and Supernovae (2005, neutral): “Numerical hydro andMHD simulations give s0 anywhere in the range from about 0.7 to 1 (Igumenshchev et al. 2000, 2003; Pen et al. 2003).”
• Three-dimensional simulations of supercritical black hole accretion discs - luminosities, photon trapping and variability (2015, background): “The hope was that the single loop would lead to a strong magnetic field at the horizon and would give a magnetically arrested disk (Igumenshchev et al. 2003; Narayan et al. 2003; Tchekhovskoy et al. 2011; McKinney et al. 2012).”
• Hot Accretion Flows Around Black Holes (2014, methodology): “One version of these models, called a “magnetically arrested disk” (MAD, Narayan et al. 2003, Igumenshchev et al. 2003, Igumenshchev 2008) or a “magnetically choked accretion flow” (MCAF, McKinney et al. 2012), is based on an idea originally proposed by BisnovatyiKogan & Ruzmaikin (1974), in which…”
• Numerical simulations of super-critical black hole accretion flows in general relativity (2013, background): “…distribute non-uniformly in azimuth and ’sneak in’ between vertical magnetic field lines), and soon afterwards the accretion is stopped and enters violent, unphysical evolution when gas bounces back and forth from the magnetic wall at the horizon (Igumenshchev et al. 2003; McKinney et al. 2012).”
• Prograde and retrograde black holes: whose jet is more powerful? (2012, background): “The excess flux remains outside, impedes the accretion, and leads to a magnetically-arrested disc (MAD, Bisnovatyi-Kogan & Ruzmaikin 1974; Narayan et al. 2003; Igumenshchev et al. 2003; Igumenshchev 2008; TNM11).”
• Magnetic Reconnection and Hot Spot Formation in Black Hole Accretion Disks (2020, background): “In the Magnetically Arrested Disk (MAD, Igumenshchev et al. 2003; Narayan et al. 2003; Tchekhovskoy et al. 2011; McKinney et al. 2012) scenario the MRI and subsequent turbulence in the inner accretion disk are suppressed due to large-scale magnetic flux (see e.g., White et al. 2019).”
• On the Nature of the Variable Infrared Emission from Sagittarius A* (2004, neutral): “Motivated by theoretical calculations and numerical simulations, we assume that the accretion rate is a function of radius, with Ṁ = Ṁ0(R/Rout) s (e.g., Blandford & Begelman 1999; Stone et al. 1999; Hawley & Balbus 2002; Igumenshchev et al. 2000, 2003).”
• Accretion of Low Angular Momentum Material onto Black Holes: Two-dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic Case (2003, methodology): “For example, for their initial conditions Stone et al. (1999), SP01, Hawley & Balbus (2002), and Igumenshchev et al. (2003) adopted a bounded torus in hydrostatic equilibrium with uniform angular momentum, embedded in zero angular momentum ambient gas that is also in hydrostatic equilibrium.”
• First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. V. Testing Astrophysical Models of the Galactic Center Black Hole (2022, background): “…interior to the black hole equator, ºM mass accretion rate), divides the outcome into two states: the MAD state (e.g., BisnovatyiKogan & Ruzmaikin 1974; Igumenshchev et al. 2003; Narayan et al. 2003; Tchekhovskoy et al. 2011) and the SANE state (e.g., De Villiers et al. 2003; Gammie et al. 2003;…”