Polarization Signatures of Quasi-Periodic Oscillations in Simulated Tilted, Truncated Disks

TL;DR

This paper uses advanced simulations to explore how tilt, truncation, and precession in black hole accretion disks affect observable polarization and spectral signatures, aiding future X-ray observations.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive simulation framework to analyze polarization, spectra, and timing signatures of tilted, truncated accretion disks around black holes.

Findings

Tilt and truncation produce distinct spectral and polarization signatures.

Precession and oscillations induce periodic signals in observables.

Results inform the interpretation of X-ray polarization data for black hole systems.

Abstract

We utilize the Monte Carlo radiation transport code, Pandurata, to create images, spectra, polarization maps, and light curves from a set of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of tilted, truncated, black hole accretion disks. Truncation can have spectral and polarization signatures all its own; tilt introduces both inclination and azimuthal dependencies into the spectra and polarization; and precession and oscillations of the tilted accretion flow inside the truncation radius introduce time dependencies or periodicity to all of this. We use the ray-traced results from our simulations to evaluate the feasibility of measuring these effects, particularly in the context of current and future X-ray polarization observatories. Such detections could greatly improve our understanding of the geometry of accretion disks and coronae in the hard state, the physics of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs), and how system properties evolve as sources approach the hard-to-soft state transition.