Neutrino-cooled Accretion Disks around Spinning Black Holes

By Wen-Xin Chen, A. Beloborodov. 2006

295 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We calculate the structure of accretion disks around Kerr black holes for accretion rates Ṁ = 0.001-10 M☉ s-1. Such high-Ṁ disks are plausible candidates for the central engine of gamma-ray bursts. Our disk model is fully relativistic and accurately treats the microphysics of the accreting matter: neutrino emissivity, opacity, electron degeneracy, and nuclear composition. The neutrino-cooled disk forms above a critical accretion rate Ṁign that depends on the black hole spin. The disk has an "ignition" radius rign where neutrino flux rises dramatically, cooling becomes efficient, and the proton-to-nucleon ratio Ye drops. Other characteristic radii are rα, where most of α-particles are disintegrated, rν, where the disk becomes ν-opaque, and rtr, where neutrinos get trapped and advected into the black hole. We find rα, rign, rν, and rtr and show their dependence on Ṁ. We discuss the qualitative picture of accretion and present sample numerical models of the disk structure. All neutrino-cooled disks regulate themselves to a characteristic state such that: (1) electrons are mildly degenerate, (2) Ye ~ 0.1, and (3) neutrons dominate the pressure in the disk.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8907e180c32de8eb398fe07af6339ab5d9bcb3ff

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. B. Metzger
2. Bing Zhang
3. E. Quataert
4. E. Nakar
5. D. Kasen
6. E. Berger
7. R. Fern'andez
8. Pawan Kumar

Citations in the corpus

• The physics of gamma-ray bursts & relativistic jets (2014, methodology): “It is possible that for a given accretion rate, different parts of an accretion disk (different r ranges) belong to different regimes, i.e. ADAF or CDAF, (e.g. Chen and Beloborodov, 2007).”
• Impact of ejecta morphology and composition on the electromagnetic signatures of neutron star mergers (2017, background): “Finally, nuclear recombination assisted by viscous magnetic forces unbinds outer layers of the post-merger accretion disk and launches disk wind outflows (Chen & Beloborodov 2007; Metzger et al. 2008; Fernández & Metzger 2013; Just et al. 2015).”
• Neutrino heating near hyper-accreting black holes (2010, methodology): “A detailed relativistic model for GRB discs was completed recently (Chen & Beloborodov 2007, hereafter CB07).”
• Three-dimensional GRMHD Simulations of Neutrino-cooled Accretion Disks from Neutron Star Mergers (2017, background): “This efficient neutrino cooling begins interior to the so-called “ignition” radius $ign $α, which is defined as the location where the neutrino-cooling timescale becomes less than the local accretion timescale (Chen & Beloborodov 2007).”
• Delayed outflows from black hole accretion tori following neutron star binary coalescence (2013, background): “However, the temperature is sufficiently high that neutrinos are relevant, especially in the earliest phases of the disk evolution (e.g., Popham et al. 1999; Narayan et al. 2001; Di Matteo et al. 2002; Chen & Beloborodov 2007; hereafter CB07).”
• Short-duration gamma-ray bursts with extended emission from protomagnetar spin-down (2007, background): “For H ≈ 0.2R0, as expected for a neutrino-cooled disk accreting at Ṁ ∼ 0.1 − 1M⊙ s −1 (Chen & Beloborodov 2007), tvisc ∼ 0.1 − 1 s, comparable to the duration of the prompt spike.”
• A Reconnection Switch to Trigger gamma-Ray Burst Jet Dissipation (2010, background): “…as applicable to a neutrino-dominated accretion disc that takes on a quite thin geometry near a rotating BH where the jet is launched [see e.g. Kohri et al. (2005) and Chen & Beloborodov (2007), and for simulations of such magnetized thin discs, see e.g. Shafee et al. (2008) and Penna et al.…”
• Time-dependent models of accretion discs formed from compact object mergers (2008, methodology): “This is the region most often modeled in previous studies (Popham et al. 1999; Narayan et al. 2001; Kohri & Mineshige 2002; DiMatteo et al. 2002; Chen & Beloborodov 2007).”
• The electromagnetic signals of compact binary mergers (2012, background): “(d) As the accretion disc evolves it spreads viscously until dissipational heating and/or the recombination of nucleons into nuclei unbind a large fraction of the late-time disc (Chen & Beloborodov 2007; Lee & Ramirez-Ruiz 2007; Beloborodov 2008; Metzger, Piro & Quataert 2008).”
• Comprehensive nucleosynthesis analysis for ejecta of compact binary mergers (2014, unknown): “…∼ 1010–1012 g cm−3 and T ∼ 10–100 GK ∼1–10 MeV, respectively) such conditions imply low values of the electron fraction, Yβe ≡ Ye(ρ, T , μν = 0) ∼ 0.1−0.2, for which electrons are moderately degenerate (see, e.g. Ruffert et al. 1997; Beloborodov 2003; Chen & Beloborodov 2007; Arcones et al. 2010).”
• The multimessenger picture of compact object encounters: binary mergers versus dynamical collisions (2012, background): “Apart from the matter that is ejected dynamically via gravitational torques, there is an additional contribution due to neutrino-driven winds (Dessart et al. 2009) and from the late-time dissolution of accretion discs (Chen & Beloborodov 2007; Beloborodov 2008; Metzger, Piro & Quataert 2008).”
• Neutrino-dominated accretion flows as the central engine of gamma-ray bursts (2017, background): “…e.g, Popham et al. 1999; Narayan et al. 2001; Di Matteo et al. 2002; Kohri & Mineshige 2002; Kohri et al. 2005; Lee et al. 2005; Gu et al. 2006; Chen & Beloborodov 2007; Liu et al. 2007; Janiuk et al. 2007; Rossi et al. 2008; Janiuk & Yuan 2010; Kawanaka & Mineshige 2007; Kawanaka et al.…”
• Simulations of ultrarelativistic magnetodynamic jets from gamma‐ray burst engines (2008, background): “In the absence of magnetic fields, a possible energy source is annihilation of neutrinos from the accretion disc (Kohri, Narayan & Piran 2005; Chen & Beloborodov 2007; Kawanaka & Mineshige 2007).”
• Short-hard gamma-ray bursts (2007, methodology): “Finally, General Relativistic effects of Kerr metric on the structure of the accretion disk are calculated by Chen & Beloborodov (2007).”
• Long-term GRMHD simulations of neutron star merger accretion discs: implications for electromagnetic counterparts (2018, background): “Immediately after the merger, the disk is sufficiently hot and dense for neutrinos to be the primary cooling channel, with most of the nuclei fully dissociated into nucleons (Popham et al. 1999; Ruffert & Janka 1999; Narayan et al. 2001; Chen & Beloborodov 2007).”
• Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Swift Era (2009, background): “…central engine, and understanding the flow patterns near relativistic objects accreting matter in the hypercritical regime (Di Matteo et al. 2002, Chen and Beloborodov 2007, Proga and Zhang 2006, Perna et al. 2006, Shibata et al. 2007, Kumar et al. 2008), where photons are unable to provide…”