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Magnetically Driven Accretion in the Kerr Metric III: Unbound Outflows

Jean-Pierre De Villiers·John F. Hawley·Julian H. Krolik·Shigenobu Hirose
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Abstract

We have carried out fully relativistic numerical simulations of accretion disks in the Kerr metric. In this paper we focus on the unbound outflows that emerge self-consistently from the accretion flow. These outflows are found in the axial funnel region and consist of two components: a hot, fast, tenuous outflow in the axial funnel proper, and a colder, slower, denser jet along the funnel wall. Although a rotating black hole is not required to produce these unbound outflows, their strength is enhanced by black hole spin. The funnel-wall jet is excluded from the axial funnel due to elevated angular momentum, and is also pressure-confined by a magnetized corona. The tenuous funnel outflow accounts for a significant fraction of the energy transported to large distances in the higher-spin simulations. We compare the outflows observed in our simulations with those seen in other simulations.

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Jean-Pierre De Villiers, John F. Hawley, Julian H. Krolik, Shigenobu Hirose. 2004-07-05. Magnetically Driven Accretion in the Kerr Metric III: Unbound Outflows. https://doi.org/10.1086/427142

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