PATOKA: Simulating Electromagnetic Observables of Black Hole Accretion

TL;DR

This paper introduces the PATOKA pipeline for simulating electromagnetic observables of black hole accretion, aiding the interpretation of EHT observations through synthetic image and spectrum generation.

Contribution

The paper details the development of the PATOKA pipeline and its integration with three numerical codes for generating synthetic black hole images and spectra for EHT analysis.

Findings

Generated a comprehensive library of synthetic black hole images and spectra.

Enhanced understanding of accretion systems and radiative processes near black holes.

Identified limitations and proposed future improvements for simulation accuracy.

Abstract

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has released analyses of reconstructed images of horizon-scale millimeter emission near the supermassive black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy. Parts of the analyses made use of a large library of synthetic black hole images and spectra, which were produced using numerical general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics fluid simulations and polarized ray tracing. In this article, we describe the PATOKA pipeline, which was used to generate the Illinois contribution to the EHT simulation library. We begin by describing the relevant accretion systems and radiative processes. We then describe the details of the three numerical codes we use, iharm, ipole, and igrmonty, paying particular attention to differences between the current generation of the codes and the originally published versions. Finally, we provide a brief overview of simulated data as produced by PATOKA and conclude with a discussion of limitations and future directions.