In this paper we derive equations describing the dynamics and stationary configurations of a twisted fully relativistic thin accretion disc around a slowly rotating black hole. We assume that the inclination angle of the disc is small and that the standard relativistic generalization of the α model of accretion discs is valid when the disc is flat. We find that similar to the case of non‐relativistic twisted discs the disc dynamics and stationary shapes can be determined by a pair of equations formulated for two complex variables describing the orientation of the disc rings and velocity perturbations induced by the twist. We analyse analytically and numerically the shapes of stationary twisted configurations of accretion discs having non‐zero inclinations with respect to the black hole equatorial plane at large distances r from the black hole. It is shown that the stationary configurations depend on two parameters – the viscosity parameter α and the parameter , where δ* is the opening angle (δ*∼h/r, where h is the disc half‐thickness and r is large) of a flat disc and a is the black hole rotational parameter. When a > 0 and the shapes depend drastically on the value of α. When α is small the disc inclination angle oscillates with radius with amplitude and radial frequency of the oscillations dramatically increasing towards the last stable orbit, Rms. When α has a moderately small value the oscillations do not take place but the disc does not align with the equatorial plane at small radii. The disc inclination angle either is increasing towards Rms or exhibits a non‐monotonic dependence on the radial coordinate. Finally, when α is sufficiently large the disc aligns with the equatorial plane at small radii. When a < 0 the disc aligns with the equatorial plane for all values of α. The results reported here may have implications for determining the structure and variability of accretion discs close to Rms as well as for modelling of emission spectra coming from different sources, which are supposed to contain black holes.
We study linear transient dynamics in a thin Keplerian disc employing a method based on variational formulation of optimisation problem. It is shown that in a shearing sheet approximation due to a prominent excitation of density waves by vortices the most rapidly growing shearing harmonic has azimuthal wavelength, λ y , of order of the disc thickness, H, and its initial shape is always nearly identical to a vortex having the same potential vorticity. Also, in the limit λ y H the optimal growth G ∝ (Ω/κ) 4 , where Ω and κ stand for local rotational and epicyclic frequencies, respectively, what suggests that transient growth of large scale vortices can be much stronger in areas with non-Keplerian rotation, e.g. in the inner parts of relativistic discs around the black holes. We estimate that if disc is already in a turbulent state with effective viscosity given by the Shakura parameter α < 1, the considered large scale vortices with wavelengths H/α > λ y > H have the most favourable conditions to be transiently amplified before they are damped. At the same time, turbulence is a natural source of the potential vorticity for this transient activity. We extend our study to a global spatial scale showing that global perturbations with azimuthal wavelengths more than an order of magnitude greater than the disc thickness still are able to attain the growth of dozens of times in a few Keplerian periods at the inner boundary of disc.
The recently discovered resonant drag instability (RDI) of dust streaming in protoplanetary disc is considered as the mode coupling of subsonic gas-dust mixture perturbations. This mode coupling is coalescence of two modes with nearly equal phase velocities: inertial wave (IW) having positive energy and a streaming dust wave (SDW) having negative energy as measured in the frame of gas environment being at rest in vertical hydrostatic equilibrium. SDW is a trivial mode produced by the bulk streaming of dust, which transports perturbations of dust density. In this way, settling combined with radial drift of the dust makes possible coupling of SDW with IW and the onset of the instability. In accordance with the concept of the mode coupling, RDI growth rate is proportional to the square root of the coupling term of the dispersion equation, which itself is proportional to mass fraction of dust, f ≪ 1. This clarifies why RDI growth rate ∝ f 1/2 . When SDW has positive energy, its resonance with IW provides an avoided crossing instead of the mode coupling. In the high wavenumber limit RDI with unbounded growth rate ∝ f 1/3 is explained by the triple mode coupling, which is coupling of SDW with two IW. It coexists with a new quasi-resonant instability accompanied by bonding of two oppositely propagating low-frequency IW. The mode coupling does not exist for dust streaming only radially in a disc. In this case RDI is provided by the obscured mechanism associated with the inertia of solids.
This paper presents our latest numerical simulations of accretion disks that are misaligned with respect to the rotation axis of a Kerr black hole. In this work we use a new, fully conservative version of the Cosmos++ general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) code, coupled with an ad hoc cooling function designed to control the thickness of the disk. Together these allow us to simulate the thinnest tilted accretion disks ever using a GRMHD code. In this way, we are able to probe the regime where the dimensionless stress and scale height of the disk become comparable. We present results for both prograde and retrograde cases. The simulated prograde tilted disk shows no sign of Bardeen-Petterson alignment even in the innermost parts of the disk. The simulated retrograde tilted disk, however, does show modest alignment. The implication of these results is that the parameter space associated with Bardeen-Petterson alignment for prograde disks may be rather small, only including very thin disks. Unlike our previous work, we find no evidence for standing shocks in our simulated tilted disks. We ascribe this to the combination of small black hole spin, small tilt angle, and small disk scale height in these simulations. We also add to the growing body of literature pointing out that the turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability in global simulations of accretion disks is not isotropic. Finally, we provide a comparison between our moderately thin, untilted reference simulation and other numerical simulations of thin disks in the literature.
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