Direct Calculation of the Radiative Efficiency of Thin Accretion Disks

Details Direct Calculation of the Radiative Efficiency of Thin Accretion Disks Direct Calculation of the Radiative Efficiency of Thin Accretion Disks

Jan 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21333805n&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #338.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.400

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

For the past 35 years, the primary theoretical model for black hole accretion has been that of Novikov and Thorne. This simple steady-state model has been invaluable for our understanding of the thermal emission of radiative efficient disks found in AGN and X-ray binaries. Unfortunately, it provides an incomplete picture of a disk's dynamical evolution and assumes that the shear stress vanishes at the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO). Fortunately, we can now perform 3D global magnetohydrodynamic disk simulations in general relativity. I will discuss recent results from such numerical simulations that conserve energy and include radiative cooling self-consistently. We find that the disk's magnetic field acts as the primary angular momentum transporter, even for plunging material within the ISCO. As in the rest of the disk, the shear stress within the ISCO leads to energy dissipation that is then radiated away. We find that there is appreciable dissipation up to the horizon, but only a portion of the dissipated heat within the ISCO escapes to infinity. We will report on our progress at calculating the disk's bolometric luminosity as a function of black hole spin and disk thickness.

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