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Alan Tsz Lok Lam

Publications and source records attributed to Alan Tsz Lok Lam.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

A formation scenario of black hole-envelope systems --viscous hydrodynamics simulation in general relativity--

By performing a viscous hydrodynamics simulation in general relativity for super-Eddington accretion flows onto massive black holes of mass $M=10^5$--$10^7M_\odot$, we discuss a formation scenario for black hole-envelope systems. We consider the mass accretion rate of $a^3/G \approx 1.5 \times 10^{25} (a/10\,\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}})^3$\,g/s, comparable to the Eddington mass accretion rate of a $10^7M_\odot$ black hole, assuming that the gas temperature of the infalling matter is $\lesssim 10^4$\,K. Here, $a$ and $G$ denote the sound speed and gravitational constant. For the accretion flow, we set up a quasi-spherical Bondi-type flow in which radial inflow dominates over angular momentum in the distant region. It is found that (i) for low-mass black holes with $M \lesssim 10^6M_\odot$, a photon-trapped region forms in the inner region, and a significant viscous outflow driven near the polar region overcomes the ram pressure of the mass inflow, leading to an inflow-outflow structure; (ii) for massive black holes of $M \gtrsim 3 \times 10^6M_\odot$, the outflow is not launched, and a convective envelope around the black hole gradually develops; and (iii) irrespective of the black-hole mass, the mass accretion rate onto the black hole is of order 10\% of the Eddington accretion rate for reasonable values of the viscous coefficient. As the mass accretion rate onto the black holes is much lower than the mass growth rate of the envelope for low-mass black holes with $M\lesssim 10^6M_\odot$, the envelope mass is likely to increase until the total viscous heating rate exceeds the Eddington luminosity of the system, if the mass accretion rate is preserved to be high for $\gtrsim 10^8 (M/10^7M_\odot)$\,yrs.

astro-ph.HE↗

Numerical-relativity simulation for tidal disruption of white dwarfs by a supermassive black hole

We study tidal disruption of white dwarfs in elliptic orbits with the eccenticity of $\sim 1/3$--$2/3$ by a non-spinning supermassive black hole of mass $M_{\rm BH}=10^5M_\odot$ in fully general relativistic simulations targeting the extreme mass-ratio inspiral leading eventually to tidal disruption. Numerical-relativity simulations are performed by employing a suitable formulation in which the weak self-gravity of white dwarfs is accurately solved. We reconfirm that tidal disruption occurs for white dwarfs of the typical mass of $\sim 0.6M_\odot$ and radius $\approx 1.2 \times 10^4$\,km near the marginally bound orbit around a non-spinning black hole with $M_{\rm BH}\alt 4\times 10^5M_\odot$.

astro-ph.HE↗