Super-Eddington Accretion Disks around Supermassive black Holes

TL;DR

This study uses advanced 3D radiation magneto-hydrodynamical simulations to explore super-Eddington accretion disks around supermassive black holes, revealing complex dynamics, outflow properties, and radiative efficiencies at extremely high accretion rates.

Contribution

First comprehensive 3D simulations of super-Eddington disks with varying magnetic flux, analyzing turbulence, outflows, and radiative efficiencies in detail.

Findings

Reynolds stress dominates angular momentum transfer without net vertical magnetic flux.

Outflows reach speeds of 0.1-0.4c and are influenced by accretion rate and magnetic flux.

Radiative efficiency decreases to about 1% at the highest accretion rates.

Abstract

We use global three dimensional radiation magneto-hydrodynamical simulations to study accretion disks onto a $5\times 10^8M_{\odot}$ black hole with accretion rates varying from $\sim 250L_{Edd}/c^2$ to $1500 L_{Edd}/c^2$. We form the disks with torus centered at $50-80$ gravitational radii with self-consistent turbulence initially generated by the magneto-rotational instability. We study cases with and without net vertical magnetic flux. The inner regions of all disks have radiation pressure $\sim 10^4-10^6$ times the gas pressure. Non-axisymmetric density waves that steepen into spiral shocks form as gas flows towards the black hole. In simulations without net vertical magnetic flux, Reynolds stress generated by the spiral shocks are the dominant mechanism to transfer angular momentum. Maxwell stress from MRI turbulence can be larger than the Reynolds stress only when net vertical magnetic flux is sufficiently large. Outflows are formed with speed $\sim 0.1-0.4c$. When the accretion rate is smaller than $\sim 500 L_{Edd}/c^2$, outflows start around $10$ gravitational radii and the radiative efficiency is $\sim 5\%-7\%$ with both magnetic field configurations. With accretion rate reaching $1500 L_{Edd}/c^2$, most of the funnel region close to the rotation axis becomes optically thick and the outflow only develops beyond $50$ gravitational radii. The radiative efficiency is reduced to $1\%$. We always find the kinetic energy luminosity associated with the outflow is only $\sim 15\%-30\%$ of the radiative luminosity. The mass flux lost in the outflow is $\sim 15\%-50\%$ of the net mass accretion rates. We discuss implications of our simulation results on the observational properties of these disks.