Hydrodynamics of circumbinary accretion: Angular momentum transfer and binary orbital evolution

Abstract

We carry out 2D viscous hydrodynamical simulations of circumbinary accretion using the AREPO code. We self-consistently compute the accretion flow over a wide range of spatial scales, from the circumbinary disk (CBD) far from the central binary, through accretion streamers, to the disks around individual binary components, resolving the flow down to 2% of the binary separation. We focus on equal-mass binaries with arbitrary eccentricities. We evolve the flow over long (viscous) timescales until a quasi-steady is reached, in which the mass supply rate at large distances $\dot{M}_0$ (assumed constant) equals the time-averaged mass transfer rate across the disk and the total mass accretion rate onto the binary components. This quasi-steady state allows us to compute the secular angular momentum transfer rate onto the binary, $\langle\dot{J}_b\rangle$, and the resulting orbital evolution. Through direct computation of the gravitational and accretion torques on the binary, we find that $\langle\dot{J}_b\rangle$ is consistently positive (i.e., the binary gains angular momentum), with $l_0\equiv\langle\dot{J}_b\rangle/\dot M_0$ in the range of $(0.4-0.8)a_b^2\Omega_b$, depending on the binary eccentricity (where $a_b,~\Omega_b$ are the binary semi-major axis and angular frequency); we also find that this $\langle\dot{J}_b\rangle$ is equal to the net angular momentum current across the CBD, indicating that global angular momentum balance is achieved in our simulations. We compute the time-averaged rate of change of the binary orbital energy for eccentric binaries, and thus obtain the secular rates $\langle\dot a_b\rangle$ and $\langle \dot{e}_b\rangle$. In all cases, $\langle\dot{a}_b\rangle$ is positive, i.e., the binary expands while accreting. We discuss the implications of our results for the merger of supermassive binary black holes and for the formation of close stellar binaries.