THREE-DIMENSIONAL SIMULATIONS OF DYNAMICS OF ACCRETION FLOWS IRRADIATED BY A QUASAR

By D. Proga. 2007

134 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We study the axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric, time-dependent hydrodynamics of gas that is under the influence of the gravity of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) and the radiation force produced by a radiatively efficient flow accreting onto the SMBH. We have considered two cases: (1) the formation of an outflow from the accretion of the ambient gas without rotation and (2) that with weak rotation. The main goals of this study are (1) to examine if there is a significant difference between the models with identical initial and boundary conditions but in different dimensionality (two and three dimensions) and (2) to understand the gas dynamics in active galactic nuclei. Our three-dimensional simulations of a nonrotating gas show small yet noticeable nonaxisymmetric small-scale features inside the outflow. The outflow as a whole and the inflow do not seem to suffer from any large-scale instability. In the rotating case, the nonaxisymmetric features are very prominent, especially in the outflow which consists of many cold dense clouds entrained in a smoother hot flow. The three-dimensional outflow is nonaxisymmetric due to the shear and thermal instabilities. In both two- and three-dimensional simulations, gas rotation increases the outflow thermal energy flux, but reduces the outflow mass and kinetic energy fluxes. Rotation also leads to time variability and fragmentation of the outflow in the radial and latitudinal directions. The collimation of the outflow is reduced in the models with gas rotation. The time variability in the mass and energy fluxes is reduced in the three-dimensional case because of the outflow fragmentation in the azimuthal direction. The virial mass estimated from the kinematics of the dense cold clouds found in our three-dimensional simulations of rotating gas underestimates the actual mass used in the simulations by about 40%. The opening angles (∼30°) of the bi-conic outflows found in the models with rotating gas are very similar to that of the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 (∼33°). The radial velocities of the dense cold clouds from the simulations are compared with the observed gas kinematics of the narrow-line region of NGC 4151.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bb4ef4593e6ec2d73b242a7244cfd5f8a9156173

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Citations in the corpus

Radiative Feedback from Massive Black Holes in Elliptical Galaxies: AGN Flaring and Central Starburst Fueled by Recycled Gas (2007, unknown): “…present work would also be the study of radiative feedback by using two-dimensional codes, in order to follow the evolution of unstable features found here, such as the cold-shell phase, and to properly describe axisymmetric accretion in the optically thick regime (e.g., Krolik 2007; Proga 2007).”
Stellar and Quasar Feedback in Concert: Effects on AGN Accretion, Obscuration, and Outflows (2015, background): “…on lines and dust, magnetic processes, or Compton heating (see e.g. Blandford & Payne 1982; Begelman 1985; Chang et al. 1987; Sanders et al. 1988; Konigl & Kartje 1994; Murray et al. 1995; Elvis 2000; Proga 2000, 2007; Silk 2005; Murray et al. 2005; Batcheldor et al. 2007; Tortora et al. 2009).”
EVIDENCE FOR LOW BLACK HOLE SPIN AND PHYSICALLY MOTIVATED ACCRETION MODELS FROM MILLIMETER-VLBI OBSERVATIONS OF SAGITTARIUS A* (2010, background): “…magnetohydrodynamic and radiative-hydrodynamic simulations playing a central role (De Villiers et al. 2005; McKinney 2006; Hawley & Krolik 2006; Beckwith et al. 2008; McKinney & Blandford 2009; Tchekhovskoy et al. 2010; Dexter et al. 2010; Penna et al. 2010; Kurosawa & Proga 2009).”
FEEDBACK FROM CENTRAL BLACK HOLES IN ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES: TWO-DIMENSIONAL MODELS COMPARED TO ONE-DIMENSIONAL MODELS (2010, background): “Complementary studies by Kurosawa & Proga (2009a) and Kurosawa & Proga (2009b) are examples of multi-dimensional simulations that cover the length scales from a few AU to ≃ 1 pc. Length and timescales relevant to SMBH accretion are resolved, and the generation of radiatively driven winds is…”
The Effect of Radiation Pressure on Virial Black Hole Mass Estimates and the Case of Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies (2008, methodology): “…upon observational evidence for outflows in the BLR, alternative models have been proposed in which part of the BLR is in the form of a disk wind (e.g. Murray & Chiang 1995; Chiang & Murray 1996; Elvis 2000; Collin & Huré 2001; Proga et al. 2000; Proga 2007; Everett 2005 and references therein).”
A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. II. Formation of Red Ellipticals (2007, background): “…required to halt accretion and produce the MBH- relation will indeed generate a galactic outflow, and recent high-resolution, self-consistent simulations of quasar feedback and accretion disk winds imply the formation of powerful kinematic outflows that will couple on larger scales (Proga 2007).”
FEEDBACK IN LUMINOUS OBSCURED QUASARS (2011, methodology): “We start with the work of Proga et al. (2008) (see also Proga 2007; Kurosawa & Proga 2009).”
The Blast Wave Model for AGN Feedback: Effects on AGN Obscuration (2008, background): “These likely originate from the acceleration of disk outflows due to the AGN radiation field (Proga 2007 and references therein).”
Hot Accretion Flows Around Black Holes (2014, background): “Whereas in quasar mode there is no doubt that feedback from radiation and radiatively-driven winds (Proga 2007, Proga et al. 2008, Liu et al. 2013) are very important, in the case of maintenance mode, radiative feedback is usually assumed to be negligible compared to mechanical feedback.”
Quasar feedback: more bang for your buck (2009, background): “Indeed, high-velocity winds driven near the accretion disc are theoretically hard to avoid (see e.g. Blandford & Payne 1982; Begelman 1985; Konigl & Kartje 1994; Elvis 2000; Proga 2000, 2007).”