Disc tearing: numerical investigation of warped disc instability

Abstract

We present numerical simulations of misaligned discs around a spinning black hole covering a range of parameters. Previous simulations have shown that discs that are strongly warped by a forced precession -- in this case the Lense-Thirring effect from the spinning black hole -- can break apart into discrete discs or rings that can behave quasi-independently for short timescales. With the simulations we present here, we confirm that thin and highly inclined discs are more susceptible to disc tearing than thicker or low inclination discs, and we show that lower values of the disc viscosity parameter lead to instability at lower warp amplitudes. This is consistent with detailed stability analysis of the warped disc equations. We find that the growth rates of the instability seen in the numerical simulations are similar across a broad range of parameters, and are of the same order as the predicted growth rates. However, we did not find the expected trend of growth rates with viscosity parameter. This may indicate that the growth rates are affected by numerical resolution, or that the wavelength of the fastest growing mode is a function of local disc parameters. Finally, we also find that disc tearing can occur for discs with a viscosity parameter that is higher than predicted by a local stability analysis of the warped disc equations. In this case, the instability manifests differently producing large changes in the disc tilt locally in the disc, rather than the large changes in disc twist that typically occur in lower viscosity discs.