Radiatively-driven black-hole winds revisited

TL;DR

This paper revisits relativistic black-hole winds using a nonequilibrium diffusion approximation, revealing critical points and transonic solutions with high terminal speeds, relevant for understanding ultra-fast outflows near black holes.

Contribution

It introduces a nonequilibrium diffusion approach with a variable Eddington factor to analyze relativistic black-hole winds, improving upon previous models with acausal diffusion approximations.

Findings

Identification of saddle-type critical points near black holes.

Wind speeds reach 0.1-0.3 times the speed of light.

Luminosity approaches the Eddington limit.

Abstract

We examine general relativistic radiatively-driven spherical winds, using the basic equations for relativistic radiation hydrodynamics under the moment formalism. Moment equations are often closed, using the equilibrium diffusion approximation, which has an acausal problem, and furthermore, gives nodal-type critical points. Instead, we use the nonequilibrium diffusion approximation with a closure relation of a variable Eddington factor, $f(\tau,\beta)$, where $\tau$ is the optical depth and $\beta$ is the flow speed normalized by the speed of light. We then analyze the critical properties in detail for several parameters, and found that there appear saddle-type critical points as well as nodal type and spiral one. The most suitable type is the saddle one, which appears in a region close to a black hole. We also calculate transonic solutions with typical parameters, and show that the luminosity is almost comparable to the Eddington luminosity, the gas is quickly accelerated in the vicinity of the black hole, and wind terminal speeds are on the order of 0.1$-$0.3$~c$. These results of radiatively-driven black hole winds can be applied, e.g., to ultra-fast outflows (UFOs), which are supposed to be fast outflows from the vicinity of super massive black holes.