A unified framework for hot accretion flows with finite angular momentum: from Bondi-like to disc-like regimes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a unified model for hot accretion flows with finite angular momentum, bridging the gap between Bondi and ADAF regimes, and explaining how substantial accretion rates are maintained in rotating galactic gas.

Contribution

The authors develop a continuous framework that connects Bondi and ADAF accretion regimes, incorporating effects of angular momentum and viscosity for the first time.

Findings

Accretion rate remains high with significant angular momentum if viscosity is sufficiently large.

The model naturally recovers Bondi accretion at zero angular momentum and ADAF at high angular momentum.

Finite angular momentum does not necessarily suppress accretion rates in hot flows.

Abstract

Observations of X-ray luminous elliptical galaxies suggest that the accretion rate onto the central supermassive black hole can reach a substantial fraction of the Bondi rate. However, classical accretion theory applicable to such hot accretion flows treats spherically symmetric Bondi accretion and disc-like advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAFs) as two distinct limiting cases, lacking a unified framework for flows with finite angular momentum. In this work, we develop such a framework that continuously connects these two regimes. Our model naturally recovers the Bondi solution in the limit of vanishing angular momentum and approaches the properties of classical ADAFs at high angular momentum, while providing a physically well-defined description of the intermediate regime where neither limiting case is strictly applicable. We further demonstrate that the accretion rate is jointly regulated by the angular momentum of the ambient gas and the gas viscosity. For sufficiently large but physically reasonable viscosity, the accretion rate can remain at a significant fraction of the Bondi rate even in the presence of substantial gas rotation. These results offer a natural explanation for how such accretion rates can be sustained despite finite angular momentum in realistic galactic environments.