General Relativistic Numerical Simulation of sub-Keplerian Transonic Accretion Flows onto Black Holes: Schwarzschild Spacetime

TL;DR

This paper presents a general relativistic numerical simulation of sub-Keplerian transonic accretion flows onto black holes in Schwarzschild spacetime, validating the code with 1D results and exploring shock formation in 2D flows.

Contribution

It introduces a new simulation framework for modeling transonic accretion flows in Schwarzschild spacetime and demonstrates shock formation in 2D flows without existing theoretical analysis.

Findings

Validation of simulation code with 1D theoretical results

Demonstration of steady state shock formation in 2D flows

Evidence that shock formation occurs even without complete theoretical understanding

Abstract

We study time evolution of sub-Keplerian transonic accretion flows onto black holes using a general relativistic numerical simulation code. We perform simulations in Schwarzschild spacetime. We first compare one-dimensional simulation results with theoretical results and validate the performance of our code. Next, we present results of axisymmetric, two-dimensional simulation of advective flows. We find that even in this case, for which no complete theoretical analysis is present in the literature, steady state shock formation is possible.