Probing the accretion disk - jet connection via instabilities in the inner accretion flow. From microquasars to quasars

TL;DR

This paper explores the connection between accretion disk instabilities and jet behaviors in black hole systems, linking phenomena from microquasars to quasars through various instability mechanisms.

Contribution

It identifies specific instability mechanisms in accretion disks that explain jet morphology and cyclic activity across different black hole systems.

Findings

Thermal instability due to radiation pressure causes cyclic outbursts.

Partial hydrogen ionization instability explains longer timescale variability.

Disk precession leads to jet direction distortions and complex morphologies.

Abstract

We present various instability mechanisms in the accreting black hole systems which might indicate at the connection between the accretion disk and jet. The jets observed in microquasars can have a persistent or blobby morphology. Correlated with the accretion luminosity, this might provide a link to the cyclic outbursts of the disk. Such duty-cycle type of behavior on short timescales results from the thermal instability caused by the radiation pressure domination. The same type of instability may explain the cyclic radioactivity of the supermassive black hole systems. The somewhat longer timescales are characteristic for the instability caused by the partial hydrogen ionization. The distortions of the jet direction and complex morphology of the sources can be caused by precession of the disk-jet axis.