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Title: The Properties of Reconnection Current Sheets in GRMHD Simulations of Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flows

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
 [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)
  2. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
  3. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
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We report that non-ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effects may play a significant role in determining the dynamics, thermal properties, and observational signatures of radiatively inefficient accretion flows onto black holes. In particular, particle acceleration during magnetic reconnection events may influence black hole spectra and flaring properties. We use representative general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations of black hole accretion flows to identify and explore the structures and properties of current sheets as potential sites of magnetic reconnection. In the case of standard and normal evolution (SANE) disks, we find that in the reconnection sites, the plasma beta ranges from 0.1 to 1000, the magnetization ranges from 10-4 to 1, and the guide fields are weak compared with the reconnecting fields. In magnetically arrested (MAD) disks, we find typical values for plasma beta from 10-2 to 103, magnetizations from 10-3 to 10, and typically stronger guide fields, with strengths comparable to or greater than the reconnecting fields. These are critical parameters that govern the electron energy distribution resulting from magnetic reconnection and can be used in the context of plasma simulations to provide microphysics inputs to global simulations. Lastly, we also find that ample magnetic energy is available in the reconnection regions to power the fluence of bright X-ray flares observed from the black hole in the center of the Milky Way.

Research Organization:
Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0016542
OSTI ID:
1529502
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 853, Issue 2; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 26 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (30)

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First simultaneous NIR/X-ray detection of a flare from Sgr A* journal October 2004
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FAST VARIABILITY AND MILLIMETER/IR FLARES IN GRMHD MODELS OF Sgr A* FROM STRONG-FIELD GRAVITATIONAL LENSING journal October 2015
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Cited By (14)

Radiative signatures of plasmoid-dominated reconnection in blazar jets journal October 2018
Acceleration and escape processes of high-energy particles in turbulence inside hot accretion flows journal February 2019
Very-high-energy Emission from Magnetic Reconnection in the Radiative-inefficient Accretion Flow of SgrA* journal June 2019
No Sign of G2's Encounter Affecting Sgr A*'s X-Ray Flaring Rate from Chandra Observations journal October 2019
A Quasi-static Hyper-resistive Model of Ultra-high-energy Cosmic-ray Acceleration by Magnetically Collimated Jets Created by Active Galactic Nuclei journal October 2019
Chandra Spectral and Timing Analysis of Sgr A*'s Brightest X-Ray Flares journal November 2019
Generalized, Energy-conserving Numerical Simulations of Particles in General Relativity. II. Test Particles in Electromagnetic Fields and GRMHD journal February 2019
General-relativistic Resistive Magnetohydrodynamics with Robust Primitive-variable Recovery for Accretion Disk Simulations journal September 2019
First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. V. Physical Origin of the Asymmetric Ring journal April 2019
Generalized, energy-conserving numerical simulations of particles in general relativity. II. Test particles in electromagnetic fields and GRMHD text January 2018
Acceleration and Escape Processes of High-energy Particles in Turbulence inside Hot Accretion Flows text January 2018
First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. V. Physical Origin of the Asymmetric Ring text January 2019
Chandra Spectral and Timing Analysis of Sgr A*'s Brightest X-ray Flares text January 2019
No sign of G2's encounter affecting Sgr A*'s X-ray flaring rate from $Chandra$ observations text January 2019

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
acceleration of particles
accretion
accretion disks
magnetic reconnection
quasars: supermassive black holes