High-frequency quasi-periodic light variations from arc-shaped gas clouds falling to a black hole

Abstract

We investigate dynamical and radiative properties of arc-shaped gas clouds falling onto a stellar mass black hole based on the three-dimensional general relativistic radiation-magnetohydrodynamics (3D-GRRMHD) simulation data. Assuming that the gas clouds radiate due mainly to the free-free emission and/or optically thick, inverse Compton scattering, we calculate how the emissivity distributions develop with time. We find that (1) gas clouds, each of which has a ring-like or arc shape, are intermittently formed, and that (2) they slowly fall to the black hole, keeping nearly the Keplerian orbital velocity. These features support the dynamical properties of the gas clouds assumed in the spin measurement method proposed by Moriyama & Mineshige 2015, but the radius of the inner edge of the accretion disk is larger than that of the marginally stable orbit (ISCO). Next, we examine how each gas cloud is observed by a distant observer by calculating the photon trajectories in the black hole space-time. The luminosity of the accretion flow exhibits significant time variations on different timescales, reflecting the time evolution of the gas density distributions. The relatively slow variations on the time durations of 0.08-0.10 sec is due to the formation and fall of gas clouds, while quasi-periodic flux peaks with short time intervals (0.01 sec) are due to the quasi-periodic enhancement of light from the non-axisymmetric arc-shaped clouds through the beaming effect. This may account for the high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (HF QPOs) observed in black hole binaries. The observational implications and future issues are briefly discussed.