Aligning spinning black holes and accretion discs

Details Aligning spinning black holes and accretion discs Aligning spinning black holes and accretion discs

2005-07-05

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0507098v1

Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.363:49-56,2005

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

MNRAS, in press

Scientific paper

10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09378.x

We consider the alignment torque between a spinning black hole and an accretion disc whose angular momenta are misaligned. This situation must hold initially in almost all gas accretion events on to supermassive black holes, and may occur in binaries where the black hole receives a natal supernova kick. We show that the torque always acts to align the hole's spin with the total angular momentum without changing its magnitude. The torque acts dissipatively on the disc, reducing its angular momentum, and aligning it with the hole if and only if the angle theta between the angular momenta J_d of the disc and J_h of the hole satisfies the inequality cos theta > -J_d / 2 J_h. If this condition fails, which requires both theta > pi/2 and J_d < 2 J_h, the disc counteraligns.

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