Dual Jet Interaction, Magnetically Arrested Flows, and Flares in Accreting Binary Black Holes

TL;DR

This paper uses advanced simulations to identify electromagnetic signatures of merging binary black holes, revealing magnetic reconnection processes analogous to solar phenomena that could produce observable high-energy emissions.

Contribution

It introduces novel electromagnetic signatures linked to magnetic reconnection in binary black hole accretion flows, supported by 3D GRMHD simulations with an approximate spacetime metric.

Findings

Identified two magnetic reconnection signatures analogous to solar phenomena.

Estimated electromagnetic emissions likely to produce high-energy signals.

Showed accretion flows can exhibit magnetically arrested states with intermittent jets.

Abstract

Supermassive binary black holes in galactic centers are potential multimessenger sources in gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation. To find such objects, isolating unique electromagnetic signatures of their accretion flow is key. With the aid of three-dimensional general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations that utilize an approximate, semi-analytic, super-imposed spacetime metric, we identify two such signatures for merging binaries. Both involve magnetic reconnection and are analogous to plasma processes observed in the solar corona. The first, like colliding flux tubes that can cause solar flares, involves colliding jets that form an extended reconnection layer, dissipating magnetic energy and causing the two jets to merge. The second, akin to coronal mass ejection events, involves the accretion of magnetic field lines onto both black holes; these magnetic fields then twist, inflate, and form a trailing current sheet, ultimately reconnecting and driving a hot outflow. We provide estimates for the associated electromagnetic emission for both processes, showing that they likely accelerate electrons to high energies and are promising candidates for continuous, stochastic, and/or quasi-periodic higher energy electromagnetic emission. We also show that the accretion flows around each black hole can display features associated with the magnetically arrested state. However, simulations with black hole spins misaligned with the orbital plane and simulations with larger Bondi radii saturate at lower values of horizon-penetrating magnetic flux than standard magnetically arrested disks, leading to weaker, intermittent jets due to feedback from the weak jets or equatorial flux tubes ejected by reconnecting field lines near the horizon.