Numerical general relativistic MHD with magnetically polarized matter

TL;DR

This paper extends the general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) framework to include magnetic polarization effects, implementing it in a numerical code and analyzing wave speeds and accretion in magnetically polarized fluids.

Contribution

It introduces the conservative form of GRMHD equations with magnetic polarization, and applies the model to study wave dynamics and accretion in polarized fluids.

Findings

Diamagnetic materials exhibit faster initial waves than paramagnetic ones.

Magnetic polarization significantly affects the states between waves, especially when magnetic pressure dominates.

The numerical code maintains stability and convergence in magnetized accretion scenarios.

Abstract

The magnetically polarized matter in astrophysical systems may be relevant in some magnetically dominated regions. For instance, the funnel that is generated in some highly magnetized disks configurations whereby relativistic jets are thought to spread, or in pulsars where the fluids are subject to very intense magnetic fields. With the aim of dealing with magnetic media in the astrophysical context, we present for the first time the conservative form of the GRMHD equations with a non-zero magnetic polarization vector $m^{\mu}$. Then, we follow the Anile method to compute the eigenvalue structure in the case where the magnetic polarization is parallel to the magnetic field, and it is parametrized by the magnetic susceptibility $\chi_m$. This approximation allows us to describe diamagnetic fluids, for which $\chi_m<0$, and paramagnetic fluids where $\chi_m>0$. The theoretical results were implemented in the CAFE code to study the role of the magnetic polarization in some 1D Riemann problems. We found that independently of the initial condition, the first waves that appear in the numerical solutions are faster in diamagnetic materials than in paramagnetic ones. Moreover, the constant states between the waves change notably for different magnetic susceptibilities. All these effects are more appreciable if the magnetic pressure is much bigger than the fluid pressure. Additionally, with the aim of analysing a magnetic media in a strong gravitational field, we carry out for the first time the magnetized Michel accretion of a magnetically polarized fluid. With this test, we found that the numerical solution is effectively maintained over time ($t>4000$), and that the global convergence of the code is $\gtrsim$ 2 for $\chi_{m}\lesssim 0.005$, for all the magnetic field strength $\beta$ we considered.