Energy flows in thick accretion discs and their consequences for black hole feedback. Issue 4 (13th January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sądowski, Aleksander; Lasota, Jean-Pierre; Abramowicz, Marek A.; Narayan, Ramesh
• Is Part Of: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 456:Issue 4(2016)
• Page Start: 3915
• Page End: 3928
• Publication Date: 2016-01-13
• Subjects: accretion, accretion discs -- black hole physics -- relativistic processes -- methods: numerical; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv2854
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0035-8711

Abstract

Abstract: We study energy flows in geometrically thick accretion discs, both optically thick and thin, using general relativistic, three-dimensional simulations of black hole accretion flows. We find that for non-rotating black holes the efficiency of the total feedback from thick accretion discs is 3 per cent – roughly half of the thin disc efficiency. This amount of energy is ultimately distributed between outflow and radiation, the latter scaling weakly with the accretion rate for super-critical accretion rates, and returned to the interstellar medium. Accretion on to rotating black holes is more efficient because of the additional extraction of rotational energy. However, the jet component is collimated and likely to interact only weakly with the environment, whereas the outflow and radiation components cover a wide solid angle.