The Impact of Shocks on the Vertical Structure of Eccentric Disks

TL;DR

This study explores how shocks caused by varying vertical gravity in eccentric accretion disks lead to energy dissipation, heating, and structural evolution, with implications for astrophysical phenomena like tidal disruptions.

Contribution

It introduces 1D hydrodynamics simulations to analyze shock formation and vertical structure changes in eccentric disks, highlighting the role of gravitational pumping and energy dissipation.

Findings

Shocks form near pericenter due to gravitational pumping.

Shocked gas can reach near-virial temperatures and become unbound.

Disk structures evolve rapidly into a limit-cycle with distinct entropy layers.

Abstract

Accretion disks whose matter follows eccentric orbits can arise in multiple astrophysical situations. Unlike circular orbit disks, the vertical gravity in eccentric disks varies around the orbit. In this paper, we investigate some of the dynamical effects of this varying gravity on the vertical structure using $1D$ hydrodynamics simulations of individual gas columns assumed to be mutually non-interacting. We find that time-dependent gravitational pumping generically creates shocks near pericenter; the energy dissipated in the shocks is taken from the orbital energy. Because the kinetic energy per unit mass in vertical motion near pericenter can be large compared to the net orbital energy, the shocked gas can be heated to nearly the virial temperature, and some of it becomes unbound. These shocks affect larger fractions of the disk mass for larger eccentricity and/or disk aspect ratio. If the orbit can be maintained despite orbital energy loss, diverse initial structures evolve in only a few orbits so that they follow a limit-cycle characterized by a low-entropy midplane and a much higher entropy outer layer. In favorable cases (such as the tidal disruption of stars by supermassive black holes), these effects could be a potentially important energy dissipation and mass loss mechanism.