On the time variability of geometrically-thin black hole accretion disks I : the search for modes in simulated disks

TL;DR

This study analyzes simulated thin black hole accretion disks to investigate the presence of oscillation modes and resonance instabilities, finding that hydrodynamic disks exhibit predicted g-modes while MHD turbulence does not, and no evidence of resonance is observed.

Contribution

The paper provides a detailed temporal analysis of hydrodynamic and MHD simulations, critically assessing models for high-frequency QPOs and highlighting the effects of turbulence on disk oscillations.

Findings

Hydrodynamic disks show trapped g-mode oscillations as predicted.

MHD turbulence does not excite these g-modes.

No evidence of parametric resonance instability was found.

Abstract

We present a detailed temporal analysis of a set of hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of geometrically-thin (h/r~0.05) black hole accretion disks. The black hole potential is approximated by the Paczynski-Wiita pseudo-Newtonian potential. In particular, we use our simulations to critically assess two widely discussed models for high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations, global oscillation modes (diskoseismology) and parametric resonance instabilities. We find that initially disturbed hydrodynamic disks clearly display the trapped global g-mode oscillation predicted by linear perturbation theory. In contrast, the sustained turbulence produced in the simulated MHD disks by the magneto-rotational instability does not excite these trapped g-modes. We cannot say at present whether the MHD turbulence actively damps the hydrodynamic g-mode. Our simulated MHD disks also fail to display any indications of a parametric resonance instability between the vertical and radial epicyclic frequencies. On the other hand, we do see characteristic frequencies at any given radius in the disk corresponding to local acoustic waves. We also conduct a blind search for any quasi-periodic oscillation in a proxy lightcurve based on the instantaneous mass accretion rate of the black hole, and place an upper limit of 2% on the total power in any such feature. We highlight the importance of correcting for secular changes in the simulated accretion disk when performing temporal analyses.