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1.
We consider the shape of an accretion disc whose outer regions are misaligned with the spin axis of a central black hole and calculate the steady state form of the warped disc in the case where the viscosity and surface densities are power laws in the distance from the central black hole. We discuss the shape of the resulting disc in both the frame of the black hole and that of the outer disc. We note that some parts of the disc and also any companion star maybe shadowed from the central regions by the warp. We compute the torque on the black hole caused by the Lense–Thirring precession, and hence compute the alignment and precession time-scales. We generalize the case with viscosity and hence surface density independent of radius to more realistic density distributions for which the surface density is a decreasing function of radius. We find that the alignment time-scale does not change greatly but the precession time-scale is more sensitive. We also determine the effect on this time-scale if we truncate the disc. For a given truncation radius, the time-scales are less affected for more sharply falling density distributions.  相似文献   

2.
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 M BH and spin parameter a 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 co-evolution: 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 spin   J BH  aligns with     . For a BH aligning with a corotating disc, the fractional increase in mass is typically less than a few per cent, while the spin modulus can increase up to a few tens of per cent. The alignment time-scale     is of  ∼105–106 yr  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 corotating 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.  相似文献   

3.
Strong evidence for the presence of a warped Keplerian accretion disc in NGC 4258 (M 106) has been inferred from the kinematics of water masers detected at subparsec scales. Assuming a power-law accretion disc and using constraints on the disc parameters derived from observational data, we have analysed the relativistic Bardeen–Petterson effect driven by a Kerr black hole as the potential physical mechanism responsible for the disc warping. We found that the Bardeen–Petterson radius is comparable to or smaller than the inner radius of the maser disc (independent of the allowed value for the black hole spin parameter). Numerical simulations for a wide range of physical conditions have shown that the evolution of a misaligned disc due to the Bardeen–Petterson torques usually produces an inner flat disc and a warped transition region with a smooth gradient in the tilt and twist angles. Since this structure is similar to that seen in NGC 4258, we propose that the Bardeen–Petterson effect may be responsible for the disc warping in this galaxy. We estimated the time-scale necessary for the disc inside of the Bardeen–Petterson radius to align with the black hole's equator, as a function of the black hole spin. Our results show that the Bardeen–Petterson effect can align the disc within a few billion years in the case of NGC 4258. Finally, we show that if the observed curvature of the outer anomalous arms in the galactic disc of NGC 4258 is associated with the precession of its radio jet/counterjet, then the Bardeen–Petterson effect can provide the required precession period.  相似文献   

4.
We consider the properties of the warped accretion disc in NGC 4258 which is delineated by maser emission. We use our analytical models to consider whether the disc could be warped by Lense–Thirring precession. We show that such models fit the shape of the disc well and we determine the goodness of fit for various combinations of the warp radius and the disc and black hole configurations. Though the fits are compelling evidence, we note that such a model has implications for the formation and longevity of the disc which might be problematic for the current understanding of Seyfert galaxies.  相似文献   

5.
Several AGN and black hole X-ray binaries show a clear very broad iron line, which is strong evidence that the black holes are rapidly spinning. Detailed analysis of these objects shows that the emission line is not significantly affected by absorption and that the source variability is principally due to variation in amplitude of a power-law. Underlying this is a much less variable, relativistically-smeared, reflection-dominated, component which carries the imprint of strong gravity at a few gravitational radii. The strong gravitational light bending in these regions then explains the power-law variability as due to changes in height of the primary X-ray source above the disc. The reflection component, in particular its variability and the profile of the iron line, enables us to study the innermost regions around an accreting, spinning, black hole.  相似文献   

6.
We use a combination of a cosmological N -body simulation of the concordance Λ cold dark matter paradigm and a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation to investigate the spin development of central supermassive black holes (BHs) and its relation to the BH host galaxy properties. In order to compute BH spins, we use the α model of Shakura & Sunyaev and consider the King et al. warped disc alignment criterion. The orientation of the accretion disc is inferred from the angular momentum of the source of accreted material, which bears a close relationship to the large-scale structure in the simulation. We find that the final BH spin depends almost exclusively on the accretion history and only weakly on the warped disc alignment. The main mechanisms of BH spin-up are found to be gas cooling processes and disc instabilities, a result that is only partially compatible with Monte Carlo models where the main spin-up mechanisms are major mergers and disc instabilities; the latter results are reproduced when implementing randomly oriented accretion discs in our model. Regarding the BH population, we find that more massive BHs, which are hosted by massive ellipticals, have higher spin values than less massive BHs, hosted by spiral galaxies. We analyse whether gas accretion rates and BH spins can be used as tracers of the radio loudness of active galactic nuclei (AGN). We find that the current observational indications of an increasing trend of radio-loud AGN fractions with stellar and BH mass can be easily obtained when placing lower limits on the BH spin, with a minimum influence from limits on the accretion rates; a model with random accretion disc orientations is unable to reproduce this trend. Our results favour a scenario where the BH spin is a key parameter to separate the radio-loud and radio-quiet galaxy populations.  相似文献   

7.
The power of jets from black holes is expected to depend on both the spin of the black hole and the structure of the accretion disc in the region of the last stable orbit. We investigate these dependencies using two different physical models for the jet power: the classical Blandford–Znajek (BZ) model and a hybrid model developed by Meier. In the BZ case, the jets are powered by magnetic fields directly threading the spinning black hole while in the hybrid model, the jet energy is extracted from both the accretion disc as well as the black hole via magnetic fields anchored to the accretion flow inside and outside the hole's ergosphere. The hybrid model takes advantage of the strengths of both the Blandford–Payne and BZ mechanisms, while avoiding the more controversial features of the latter. We develop these models more fully to account for general relativistic effects and to focus on advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAFs) for which the jet power is expected to be a significant fraction of the accreted rest mass energy.
We apply the models to elliptical galaxies, in order to see if these models can explain the observed correlation between the Bondi accretion rates and the total jet powers. For typical values of the disc viscosity parameter  α∼ 0.04 –0.3  and mass accretion rates consistent with ADAF model expectations, we find that the observed correlation requires   j ≳ 0.9  ; that is, it implies that the black holes are rapidly spinning. Our results suggest that the central black holes in the cores of clusters of galaxies must be rapidly rotating in order to drive jets powerful enough to heat the intracluster medium and quench cooling flows.  相似文献   

8.
The microquasar GRO J1655−40 has a black hole with spin angular momentum apparently misaligned to the orbital plane of its companion star. We analytically model the system with a steady-state disc warped by Lense–Thirring precession and find the time-scale for the alignment of the black hole with the binary orbit. We make detailed stellar evolution models so as to estimate the accretion rate and the lifetime of the system in this state. The secondary can be evolving at the end of the main sequence or across the Hertzsprung gap. The mass-transfer rate is typically 50 times higher in the latter case but we find that, in both the cases, the lifetime of the mass-transfer state is at most a few times the alignment time-scale. The fact that the black hole has not yet aligned with the orbital plane is therefore consistent with either model. We conclude that the system may or may not have been counter aligned after its supernova kick but that it is most likely to be close to alignment rather than counter alignment now.  相似文献   

9.
We consider the power of a relativistic jet accelerated by the magnetic field of an accretion disc. It is found that the power extracted from the disc is mainly determined by the field strength and configuration of the field far from the disc. Comparing it with the power extracted from a rotating black hole, we find that the jet power extracted from a disc can dominate over that from the rotating black hole. However, in some cases, the jet power extracted from a rapidly rotating hole can be more important than that from the disc, even if the poloidal field threading the hole is not significantly larger than that threading the inner edge of the disc. The results imply that the radio-loudness of quasars may be governed by its accretion rate, which might be regulated by the central black hole mass. It is proposed that the different disc field generation mechanisms might be tested against observations of radio-loud quasars if their black hole masses are available.  相似文献   

10.
We have calculated the relativistic reflection component of the X-ray spectra of accretion disks in active galactic nuclei (AGN). Our calculations have shown that the spectra can be significantly modified by the motion of the accretion flow, and the gravity and rotation of the central black hole. The absorption edges in the spectra suffer severe en- ergy shifts and smearing, and the degree of distortion depends on the system parameters, in particular, the inner radius of the accretion disk and the disk viewing inclination angles. The effects are significant. Fluorescent X-ray emission lines from the inner accretion disk could be a powerful diagnostic of space-time distortion and dynamical relativistic effects near the event horizons of accreting black holes. However, improper treatment of the re- flection component in fitting the X-ray continuum could give rise to spurious line-like features. These features mimic the true fluorescent emission lines and may mask their relativistic signatures. Fully relativistic models for reflection continua together with the emission lines are needed in order to extract black-hole parameters from the AGN X-ray spectra.  相似文献   

11.
Compact remnants – stellar mass black holes and neutron stars formed in the inner few parsec of galactic centres are predicted to sink into the central parsec due to dynamical friction on low-mass stars, forming a high concentration cusp. Same physical region may also contain very high-density molecular clouds and accretion discs that are needed to fuel supermassive black hole (SMBH) activity. Here we estimate gas capture rates on to the cusp of stellar remnants, and the resulting X-ray luminosity, as a function of the accretion disc mass. At low disc masses, most compact objects are too dim to be observable, whereas in the high disc case most of them are accreting at their Eddington rates. We find that for low accretion disc masses, compact remnant cusps may be more luminous than the central SMBHs. This 'diffuse' emission may be of importance for local moderately bright active galactic nuclei (AGNs), especially low-luminosity AGNs. We also briefly discuss how this expected emission can be used to put constraints on the black hole cusp near our Galactic Centre.  相似文献   

12.
We consider the inward propagation of warping and eccentric disturbances in discs around black holes under a wide variety of conditions. In our calculations, we use secular theories of warped and eccentric discs and assume the deformations to be stationary and propagating in a disc model similar to regions (a) and (b) of Shakura & Sunyaev discs. We find that the propagation of deformations to the innermost regions of the disc is facilitated for low viscous damping and high accretion rate. We relate our results to the possible excitation of trapped inertial modes, and to the observations of high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in black hole systems in the very high spectral state.  相似文献   

13.
We present XMM-Newton European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) observations of the bright Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG–6-30-15, focusing on the broad Fe K α line at ∼6 keV and the associated reflection continuum, which is believed to originate from the inner accretion disc. We find these reflection features to be extremely broad and redshifted, indicating an origin in the very central regions of the accretion disc. It seems likely that we have caught this source in the 'deep minimum' state first observed by Iwasawa et al. The implied central concentration of X-ray illumination is difficult to understand in any pure accretion disc model. We suggest that we are witnessing the extraction and dissipation of rotational energy from a spinning black hole by magnetic fields connecting the black hole or plunging region to the disc.  相似文献   

14.
Double-peaked broad emission lines in active galactic nuclei are generally considered to be formed in an accretion disc. In this paper, we compute the profiles of reprocessing emission lines from a relativistic, warped accretion disc around a black hole in order to explore the possibility that certain asymmetries in the double-peaked emission-line profile which cannot be explained by a circular Keplerian disc may be induced by disc warping. The disc warping also provides a solution for the energy budget in the emission-line region because it increases the solid angle of the outer disc portion subtended to the inner portion of the disc. We adopted a parametrized disc geometry and a central point-like source of ionizing radiation to capture the main characteristics of the emission-line profile from such discs. We find that the ratio between the blue and red peaks of the line profiles becoming less than unity can be naturally predicted by a twisted warped disc, and a third peak can be produced in some cases. We show that disc warping can reproduce the main features of multipeaked line profiles of four active galactic nuclei from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.  相似文献   

15.
Fluorescent iron line profiles currently provide the best diagnostic for engine geometries of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Here we construct a method for calculating the relativistic iron line profile from an arbitrarily warped accretion disc, illuminated from above and below by hard X-ray sources. This substantially generalizes previous calculations of reprocessing by accretion discs by including non-axisymmetric effects. We include a relativistic treatment of shadowing by ray-tracing photon paths along Schwarzschild geodesics. We apply this method to two classes of warped discs, and generate a selection of resulting line profiles. New profile features include a time-varying line profile if the warp precesses about the disc, profile differences between 'twisted' and 'twist-free' warps and the possibility of steeper red and softer blue fall-offs than for flat discs. We discuss some qualitative implications of the line profiles in the context of Type I and II Seyfert AGN and other sources.  相似文献   

16.
We compute the effect of an orbiting gas disc in promoting the coalescence of a central supermassive black hole binary. Unlike earlier studies, we consider a finite mass of gas with explicit time dependence: we do not assume that the gas necessarily adopts a steady state or a spatially constant accretion rate, i.e. that the merging black hole was somehow inserted into a pre-existing accretion disc. We consider the tidal torque of the binary on the disc, and the binary's gravitational radiation. We study the effects of star formation in the gas disc in a simple energy feedback framework.
The disc spectrum differs in detail from that found before. In particular, tidal torques from the secondary black hole heat the edges of the gap, creating bright rims around the secondary. These rims do not in practice have uniform brightness either in azimuth or time, but can on average account for as much as 50 per cent of the integrated light from the disc. This may lead to detectable high-photon-energy variability on the relatively long orbital time-scale of the secondary black hole, and thus offer a prospective signature of a coalescing black hole binary.
We also find that the disc can drive the binary to merger on a reasonable time-scale only if its mass is at least comparable with that of the secondary black hole, and if the initial binary separation is relatively small, i.e.   a 0≲ 0.05  pc. Star formation complicates the merger further by removing mass from the disc. In the feedback model we consider, this sets an effective limit to the disc mass. As a result, binary merging is unlikely unless the black hole mass ratio is ≲0.001. Gas discs thus appear not to be an effective solution to the 'last parsec' problem for a significant class of mergers.  相似文献   

17.
The central engines of active galactic nuclei (AGN) contain cold, dense material as well as hot X-ray-emitting gas. The standard paradigm for the engine geometry is a cold thin disc sandwiched between hot X-ray coronae. Strong support for this geometry in Seyferts comes from the study of fluorescent iron line profiles, although the evidence is not ubiquitously airtight. The thin disc model of line profiles in AGN and in X-ray binaries should still be benchmarked against other plausible possibilities. One proposed alternative is an engine consisting of dense clouds embedded in an optically thin, geometrically thick X-ray-emitting engine. This model is also motivated by studies of geometrically thick engines such as advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAFs). Here we compute the reprocessed iron line profiles from dense clouds embedded in geometrically thick, optically thin X-ray-emitting discs near a Schwarzschild black hole. We consider a range of cloud distributions and disc solutions, including ADAFs, pure radial infall and bipolar outflows. We find that such models can reproduce line profiles similar to those from geometrically thin, optically thick discs and might help alleviate some of the problems encountered from the latter. Thus, independent of thin discs, thick disc engines can also exhibit iron line profiles if embedded dense clouds can survive long enough to reprocess radiation.  相似文献   

18.
We present the results of a study of propagating warp or bending waves in accretion discs. Three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations were performed using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), and the results are compared with calculations based on the linear theory of warped discs.
We examine the response of a gaseous disc to an initially imposed warping disturbance under a variety of physical conditions. We consider primarily the physical regime in which the dimensionless viscosity parameter α < H r , where H r is the disc aspect ratio, so that bending waves are expected to propagate. We also performed calculations for disc models in which α > H r , where the warps are expected to evolve diffusively. Small-amplitude (linear) perturbations are studied in both Keplerian and slightly non-Keplerian discs, and we find that the results of the SPH calculations can be reasonably well fitted by those of the linear theory. The main results of these calculations are: (i) the warp in Keplerian discs when α < H r propagates with little dispersion, and damps at a rate expected from estimates of the code viscosity; (ii) warps evolve diffusively when α > H r ; (iii) the slightly non-Keplerian discs lead to a substantially more dispersive behaviour of the warps, which damp at a similar rate to the Keplerian case, when α < H r .
Initially imposed higher amplitude, non-linear warping disturbances were studied in Keplerian discs. The results indicate that non-linear warps can lead to the formation of shocks, and that the evolution of the warp becomes less wave-like and more diffusive in character.
This work is relevant to the study of the warped accretion discs that may occur around Kerr black holes or in misaligned binary systems, and is mainly concerned with discs in which α < H r . The results indicate that SPH can model the hydrodynamics of warped discs, even when using rather modest numbers of particles.  相似文献   

19.
The broad X-ray iron line, detected in many active galactic nuclei, is likely to be produced by fluorescence from the X-ray-illuminated central parts of an accretion disc close to a supermassive black hole. The time-averaged shape of the line can be explained most naturally by a combination of special and general relativistic effects. Such line profiles contain information about the black hole spin and the accretion disc, as well as the geometry of the emitting region, and may help to test general relativity in the strong gravity regime. In this paper we embark on the computation of the temporal response of the line to the illuminating flux. Previous studies concentrated on the calculation of reverberation signatures from static sources illuminating the disc. In this paper we focus on the more physically justified case of flares located above the accretion disc and corotating with it. We compute the time-dependent iron line, taking into account all general relativistic effects, and show that its shape is of a very complex nature, and we also present light curves accompanying the iron line variability. We suggest that present and future X-ray satellites like XMM or Constellation-X may be capable of detecting features present in the computed reverberation maps.  相似文献   

20.
In this paper we look at one of the effects of irradiation on a warped accretion disc in the context of active galactic nuclei (AGN). A warp will catch a substantial amount of the radiation emitted by the central object. We consider the fluid motions that may arise inside a warped disc when the surface is subject to a radiation stress, and also the net mass flows that result. We find that, to first order, we have a balance of the viscous and Coriolis-type forces. The radial radiation stress causes outward motion of the surface layer, but only the azimuthal Poynting–Robertson drag leads to an increase in the net accretion rate. We investigate the distribution of the velocity perturbations and find them to be significant in determining the local structure of the disc.
An unexpected result is that the picture changes significantly when we take into account the periodic illumination of the warped disc. A type of resonance at the local Keplerian rotation frequency causes a flow that penetrates the whole thickness of the disc; these flows are faster than the flows due to unchanging illumination. They totally dominate the induced flows in terms of sheer mass, but significant impact on disc structure still occurs only near the surface, where velocity perturbations typically go up to some kilometres per second.  相似文献   

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