Advection-dominated accretion flows in the kerr metric. II. Steady state global solutions

Robert Popham, Charles F. Gammie

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In a previous paper, we have written equations describing steady state, optically thin, advectiondominated accretion onto a Kerr black hole. In this paper, we survey the numerical solutions to these equations. We find that the temperature and density of the gas in the inner part of the accretion flow depend strongly on the black hole spin parameter a. The rate of angular momentum accretion is also shown to depend on a; for a greater than an equilibrium spin parameter aeq, the black hole is de-spun by the accretion flow. We also investigate the dependence of the flow on the angular momentum transport efficiency a, the advected fraction of the dissipated energy /, and the adiabatic index y. We find solutions for -1a 1, 10-4 ≤ α ≤ 0.44, 0.01 ≤1, and 4/3 ≤ γ ≤ 5/3. For low values of α and f, the inner part of the flow exhibits a pressure maximum and appears similar to equilibrium thick disk solutions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)419-430
Number of pages12
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume504
Issue number1 PART I
DOIs
StatePublished - 1998
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Accretion, accretion disks
  • Black hole physics
  • Relativity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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