Title: General-relativistic Resistive Magnetohydrodynamics with Robust Primitive-variable Recovery for Accretion Disk Simulations

Abstract

Recent advances in black hole astrophysics, particularly the first visual evidence of a supermassive black holeat the center of the galaxy M87 by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), and the detection of an orbiting “hot spot”nearby the event horizon of Sgr A* in the Galactic center by the Gravity Collaboration, require the developmentof novel numerical methods to understand the underlying plasma microphysics. Non-thermal emission related tosuch hot spots is conjectured to originate from plasmoids that form due to magnetic reconnection in thin currentlayers in the innermost accretion zone. Resistivity plays a crucial role in current sheet formation, magneticreconnection, and plasmoid growth in black hole accretion disks and jets. We included resistivity in the three-dimensional general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) codeBHACand present the implementationof an Implicit-Explicit scheme to treat the stiff resistive source terms of the GRMHD equations. The algorithmis tested in combination with adaptive mesh refinement to resolve the resistive scales and a constrained transportmethod to keep the magnetic field solenoidal. Several novel methods for primitive variable recovery, a key part inrelativistic magnetohydrodynamics codes, are presented and compared for accuracy, robustness, and efficiency.We propose a new inversion strategy that allows for resistive-GRMHD simulations of low gas-to-magneticpressure ratio and highly magnetized regimes asmore » applicable for black hole accretion disks, jets, and neutron starmagnetospheres. We apply the new scheme to study the effect of resistivity on accreting black holes, accountingfor dissipative effects as reconnection« less

Authors:

Ripperda, B.  ^[1];

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Bacchini, F.  ^[1];

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Porth, O.  ^[2];

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Most, E. R.  ^[3];

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Olivares, H.  ^[3];

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Nathanail, A. ^[3]; Rezzolla, L.  ^[3];

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Teunissen, J.  ^[4];

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Keppens, R.  ^[5]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Goethe Univ., Frankfurt (Germany); Katholieke Univ. Leuven, Heverlee (Belgium)
2. Goethe Univ., Frankfurt (Germany) ; Univ. of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
3. Goethe Univ., Frankfurt (Germany)
4. Katholieke Univ. Leuven, Heverlee (Belgium); Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
5. Katholieke Univ. Leuven, Heverlee (Belgium)

Publication Date:

2019-09-09

Research Org.:

Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP) (SC-25)

OSTI Identifier:

1593850

Grant/Contract Number:  

SC0009924

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

The Astrophysical Journal. Supplement Series (Online)

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal. Supplement Series (Online); Journal Volume: 244; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4365

Publisher:

American Astronomical Society/IOP

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; black hole physics; accretion, accretion disks; (magnetohydrodynamics:) MHD; plasmas; relativity; methods: numerical