Warping and precession in galactic and extragalactic accretion disks

Details Warping and precession in galactic and extragalactic accretion disks Warping and precession in galactic and extragalactic accretion disks

2006-08-18

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608398v1

Astrophys.J.653:112-126,2006

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

35 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

Scientific paper

10.1086/508508

The Bardeen-Petterson general relativistic effect has been suggested as the mechanism responsible for precession in some accretion disk systems. Here we examine separately four mechanisms (tidally-induced, irradiation-induced, magnetically-induced and Bardeen-Petterson-induced) that can lead to warping and precession. We use a sample of eight X-ray binaries and four Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) that present signatures of warping and/or precession in their accretion disks to explore the viability of the different mechanisms. For the X-ray binaries SMC X-1 and 4U 1907+09 all four mechanisms provide precession periods compatible with those observed, while for Cyg X-1 and the active galaxies Arp 102B and NGC 1068, only two mechanisms are in agreement with the observations. The irradiation-driven instability seems incapable of producing the inferred precession of the active galaxies in our sample, and the tidally-induced precession can probably be ruled out in the case of Arp 102B. Perhaps the best case for a Bardeen-Petterson precession can be achieved for NGC 1068. Our results show that given the many observational uncertainties that still exist, it is extremely difficult to confirm unambiguously that the Bardeen-Petterson effect has been observed in any of the other sources of our sample.

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