arXiv subjects

Bart Ripperda

Publications and source records attributed to Bart Ripperda.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

Black hole pulsars and monster shocks as outcomes of black hole--neutron star mergers

The merger of a black hole (BH) and a neutron star (NS) in most cases is expected to leave no material around the remnant BH; therefore, such events are often considered as sources of gravitational waves without electromagnetic counterparts. However, a bright counterpart can emerge if the NS is strongly magnetized, as its external magnetosphere can experience radiative shocks and magnetic reconnection during/after the merger. We use magnetohydrodynamic simulations in the dynamical spacetime of a merging BH--NS binary to investigate its magnetospheric dynamics. We find that compressive waves excited in the magnetosphere develop into monster shocks as they propagate outward. After swallowing the NS, the BH acquires a magnetosphere that quickly evolves into a split monopole configuration and then undergoes an exponential decay (balding), enabled by magnetic reconnection and also assisted by the ring-down of the remnant BH. This spinning BH drags the split monopole into rotation, forming a transient pulsar-like state. It emits a striped wind if the swallowed magnetic dipole moment is inclined to the spin axis. We predict two types of transients from this scenario: (1) a fast radio burst emitted by the shocks as they expand to large radii and (2) an X/$γ$-ray burst emitted by the $e^\pm$ outflow heated by magnetic dissipation.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Two-temperature treatments in magnetically arrested disk GRMHD simulations more accurately predict light curves of Sagittarius A*

The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (EHTC) observed the Galactic centre source Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) and used emission models primarily based on single ion temperature (1T) general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations. This predicted emission is strongly dependent on a modelled prescription of the ion-to-electron temperature ratio. The most promising models are magnetically arrested disk (MAD) states. However, nearly all MAD models exhibit larger temporal fluctuations in radiative 230 GHz emission compared to observations. This limitation possibly stems from the fact that the actual temperature ratio depends on microphysical dissipation, radiative processes and other effects not captured in ideal fluid simulations. Therefore, we investigate the effects of two-temperature (2T) thermodynamics in MAD GRMHD simulations of Sgr A*, where the temperatures of both species are evolved. We find that the 230 GHz synchrotron flux variability more closely matches historical observations when we include the 2T treatment compared to 1T simulations. For the low accretion rates of Sgr A*, a common assumption is to neglect radiative cooling. However, we find that the radiative cooling of electrons-via synchrotron, inverse Compton, and bremsstrahlung processes-reduces the electron temperature in the inner disk, where the EHT observes, by about 10%, which, in turn, decreases both the (sub)millimetre synchrotron flux and its temporal fluctuations compared to uncooled simulations.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Bulk Motions in the Black Hole Jet Sheath as a Candidate for the Comptonizing Corona

Using two-dimensional general relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we investigate the properties of the sheath separating the black hole jet from the surrounding medium. We find that the electromagnetic power flowing through the jet sheath is comparable to the overall accretion power of the black hole. The sheath is an important site of energy dissipation as revealed by the copious appearance of reconnection layers and plasmoid chains. About 20% of the sheath power is dissipated between 2 and 10 gravitational radii. The plasma in the dissipative sheath moves along a nearly paraboloidal surface with trans-relativistic bulk motions dominated by the radial component, whose dimensionless 4-velocity is $\sim1.2\pm0.5$. In the frame moving with the mean (radially-dependent) velocity, the distribution of stochastic bulk motions resembles a Maxwellian with an `effective bulk temperature' of $\sim$100 keV. Scaling the global simulation to Cygnus X-1 parameters gives a rough estimate of the Thomson optical depth across the jet sheath $\sim 0.01-0.1$, and it may increase in future magnetohydrodynamic simulations with self-consistent radiative losses. These properties suggest that the dissipative jet sheath may be a viable `coronal' region, capable of upscattering seed soft photons into a hard, nonthermal tail, as seen during the hard states of X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

First mid-infrared detection and modeling of a flare from Sgr A*

The time-variable emission from the accretion flow of Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center, has long been examined in the radio-to-mm, near-infrared (NIR), and X-ray regimes of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, until now, sensitivity and angular resolution have been insufficient in the crucial mid-infrared (MIR) regime. The MIRI instrument on JWST has changed that, and we report the first MIR detection of Sgr A*. The detection was during a flare that lasted about 40 minutes, a duration similar to NIR and X-ray flares, and the source's spectral index steepened as the flare ended. The steepening suggests synchrotron cooling is an important process for Sgr A*'s variability and implies magnetic field strengths $\sim$40--70 Gauss in the emission zone. Observations at $1.3~\mathrm{mm}$ with the Submillimeter Array revealed a counterpart flare lagging the MIR flare by $\approx$10 minutes. The observations can be self-consistently explained as synchrotron radiation from a single population of gradually cooling high-energy electrons accelerated through (a combination of) magnetic reconnection and/or magnetized turbulence.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Effective resistivity in relativistic reconnection: a prescription based on fully kinetic simulations

A variety of high-energy astrophysical phenomena are powered by the release -- via magnetic reconnection -- of the energy stored in oppositely directed fields. Single-fluid resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations with uniform resistivity yield dissipation rates that are much lower (by nearly one order of magnitude) than equivalent kinetic calculations. Reconnection-driven phenomena could be accordingly modeled in resistive MHD employing a non-uniform, ``effective'' resistivity informed by kinetic calculations. In this work, we analyze a suite of fully kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of relativistic pair-plasma reconnection -- where the magnetic energy is greater than the rest mass energy -- for different strengths of the guide field orthogonal to the alternating component. We extract an empirical prescription for the effective resistivity, $η_{\mathrm{eff}} = αB_0 \mathbf{|J|}^p / \left(|\mathbf{J}|^{p+1}+\left(e n_t c\right)^{p+1}\right)$, where $B_0$ is the reconnecting magnetic field strength, $\bf J$ is the current density, $n_t$ the lab-frame total number density, $e$ the elementary charge, and $c$ the speed of light. The guide field dependence is encoded in $α$ and $p$, which we fit to PIC data. This resistivity formulation -- which relies only on single-fluid MHD quantities -- successfully reproduces the spatial structure and strength of nonideal electric fields, and thus provides a promising strategy for enhancing the reconnection rate in resistive MHD simulations.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

A New Particle Pusher with Hadronic Interactions for Modeling Multimessenger Emission from Compact Objects

We propose novel numerical schemes based on the Boris method in curved spacetime, incorporating both hadronic and radiative interactions for the first time. Once the proton has lost significant energy due to radiative and hadronic losses, and its gyroradius has decreased below typical scales on which the electromagnetic field varies, we apply a guiding center approximation (GCA). We fundamentally simulate collision processes either with a Monte-Carlo method or, where applicable, as a continuous energy loss, contingent on the local optical depth. To test our algorithm for the first time combining the effects of electromagnetic, gravitational, and radiation fields including hadronic interactions, we simulate highly relativistic protons traveling through various electromagnetic fields and proton backgrounds. We provide unit tests in various spatially dependent electromagnetic and gravitational fields and background photon and proton distributions, comparing the trajectory against analytic results. We propose that our method can be used to analyze hadronic interactions in black hole accretion disks, jets, and coronae to study the neutrino abundance from active galactic nuclei.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Monster Shocks, Gamma-Ray Bursts, and Black Hole Quasi-normal Modes from Neutron-star Collapse

We perform the first magnetohydrodynamic simulation tracking the magnetosphere of a collapsing magnetar. The collapse is expected for massive rotating magnetars formed in merger events, and may occur many hours after the merger. Our simulation suggests a novel mechanism for a gamma-ray burst (GRB) which is uncollimated and forms a delayed high-energy counterpart of the merger gravitational waves. The simulation shows that the collapse launches an outgoing magnetospheric shock, and a hot magnetized outflow forms behind the shock. The outflow is baryon-free and uncollimated, and its power peaks on a millisecond timescale. Then, the outflow becomes modulated by the ring-down of the nascent black hole, imprinting its kilohertz quasi-normal modes on the GRB tail.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Resolution analysis of magnetically arrested disk simulations

Polarisation measurements by the Event Horizon Telescope from M87$^{\ast}$ and Sgr A$^\ast$ suggest that there is a dynamically strong, ordered magnetic field, typical of what is expected of a magnetically arrested accretion disk (MAD). In such disks the strong poloidal magnetic field can suppress the accretion flow and cause episodic flux eruptions. Recent work shows that General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) MAD simulations feature dynamics of turbulence and mixing instabilities that are becoming resolved at higher resolutions. We perform a convergence study of MAD states exceeding the status quo by an order of magnitude in resolution. We use existing 3D simulations performed with the H-AMR code, up to resolution of 5376 x 2304 x 2304 in a logarithmic spherical-polar grid. We find consistent time-averaged disk properties across all resolutions. However, higher resolutions reveal signs of inward angular momentum transport attributed to turbulent convection, particularly evident when mixing instabilities occur at the surfaces of flux tubes during flux eruptions. Additionally, we see wave-like features in the jet sheath, which become more prominent at higher resolutions, that may induce mixing between jet and disk. At higher resolutions, we observe the sheath to be thinner, resulting in increased temperature, reduced magnetisation, and greater variability. Those differences could affect the dissipation of energy, that would eventually result in distinct observable radiative emission from high-resolution simulations. With higher resolutions, we can delve into crucial questions about horizon-scale physics and its impact on the dynamics and emission properties of larger-scale jets.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Neutron Star Atmosphere-Ocean Dynamics

We analyze the structure and dynamics of the plasma atmospheres and Coulomb-liquid oceans on neutron stars. Salient dynamical parameters are identified and their values estimated for the governing set of magnetohydrodynamics equations. Neutron star atmospheres and oceans are strongly stratified and, depending on the rotation period, contain a multitude of long-lived vortices (spots) and/or narrow zonal jets (free-shear zones) in the large plasma-beta regime - i.e., $β_p \gg 1$ (hydrodynamic regime). In contrast, when $β_p \lesssim 1$ (magnetohydrodynamic regime), the flow is dominated by a global lattice of effectively fixed magnetic islands (plasmoids) - without any jets. Understanding the spatio-temporal variability of dynamic atmospheres and oceans on neutron stars is crucial for interpreting observations of their X-ray emissions.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Plasmoid Instability in the Multiphase Interstellar Medium

The processes controlling the complex clump structure, phase distribution, and magnetic field geometry that develops across a broad range of scales in the turbulent interstellar medium remains unclear. Using unprecedentedly high resolution three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations of thermally unstable turbulent systems, we show that large current sheets unstable to plasmoid-mediated reconnection form regularly throughout the volume. The plasmoids form in three distinct environments: (i) within cold clumps, (ii) at the asymmetric interface of the cold and warm phases, and (iii) within the warm, volume-filling phase. We then show that the complex magneto-thermal phase structure is characterized by a predominantly highly magnetized cold phase, but that regions of high magnetic curvature, which are the sites of reconnection, span a broad range in temperature. Furthermore, we show that thermal instabilities change the scale dependent anisotropy of the turbulent magnetic field, reducing the increase in eddy elongation at smaller scales. Finally, we show that most of the mass is contained in one contiguous cold structure surrounded by smaller clumps that follow a scale free mass distribution. These clumps tend to be highly elongated and exhibit a size versus internal velocity relation consistent with supersonic turbulence, and a relative clump distance-velocity scaling consistent with subsonic motion. We discuss the striking similarity of cold plasmoids to observed tiny scale atomic and ionized structures and HI fibers, and consider how the prevalence of plasmoids will modify the motion of charged particles thereby impacting cosmic ray transport and thermal conduction in the ISM and other similar systems.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Black Hole-Disk Interactions in Magnetically Arrested Active Galactic Nuclei: General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations Using A Time-Dependent, Binary Metric

Perturber objects interacting with supermassive black hole accretion disks are often invoked to explain observed quasi-periodic behavior in active galactic nuclei (AGN). We present global, 3D general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations of black holes on inclined orbits colliding with magnetically arrested thick AGN disks using a binary black hole spacetime with mass ratio $0.1$. We do this by implementing an approximate time-dependent binary black hole metric into the GRMHD code Athena++. The secondary enhances the unbound mass outflow rate 2-4 times above that provided by the disk in quasi-periodic outbursts, eventually merging into a more continuous outflow at larger distances. We present a simple analytic model that qualitatively agrees well with this result and can be used to extrapolate to unexplored regions of parameter space. We show self-consistently for the first time that spin-orbit coupling between the primary black hole spin and the binary orbital angular momentum causes the accretion disk and jet directions to precess significantly (by 60$^\circ$-80$^\circ$) on long time-scales (e.g., $\sim$ 20 times the binary orbital period). Because this effect may be the only way for thick AGN disks to consistently precess, it could provide strong evidence of a secondary black hole companion if observed in such a system. Besides this new phenomenology, the time-average properties of the disk and accretion rates onto the primary are only marginally altered by the presence of the secondary, consistent with our estimate for a perturbed thick disk. This situation might drastically change in cooled thin disks.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Current sheet alignment in oblique black hole magnetospheres -- a black hole pulsar?

We study the magnetospheric evolution of a non-accreting spinning black hole (BH) with an initially inclined split monopole magnetic field by means of three-dimensional general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations. This serves as a model for a neutron star (NS) collapse or a BH-NS merger remnant after the inherited magnetosphere has settled into a split monopole field creating a striped wind. We show that the initially inclined split monopolar current sheet aligns over time with the BH equatorial plane. The inclination angle evolves exponentially towards alignment, with an alignment timescale that is inversely proportional to the square of the BH angular velocity, where higher spin results in faster alignment. Furthermore, magnetic reconnection in the current sheet leads to exponential decay of event horizon penetrating magnetic flux with nearly the same timescale for all considered BH spins. In addition, we present relations for the BH mass and spin in terms of the period and alignment timescale of the striped wind. The explored scenario of a rotating, aligning and reconnecting current sheet can potentially lead to multimessenger electromagnetic counterparts to a gravitational wave event due to the acceleration of particles powering high-energy radiation, plasmoid mergers resulting in coherent radio signals, and pulsating emission due to the initial misalignment of the BH magnetosphere.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

A Case for a Binary Black Hole System Revealed via Quasi-Periodic Outflows

Binaries containing a compact object orbiting a supermassive black hole are thought to be precursors of gravitational wave events, but their identification has been extremely challenging. Here, we report quasi-periodic variability in X-ray absorption which we interpret as quasi-periodic outflows (QPOuts) from a previously low-luminosity active galactic nucleus after an outburst, likely caused by a stellar tidal disruption. We rule out several models based on observed properties and instead show using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations that QPOuts, separated by roughly 8.3 days, can be explained with an intermediate-mass black hole secondary on a mildly eccentric orbit at a mean distance of about 100 gravitational radii from the primary. Our work suggests that QPOuts could be a new way to identify intermediate/extreme-mass ratio binary candidates.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

A Beginner's Guide to Black Hole Imaging and Associated Tests of General Relativity

Following the 2019 release by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration of the first pictures of a supermassive black hole, there has been an explosion of interest in black hole images, their theoretical interpretation, and their potential use in tests of general relativity. The literature on the subject has now become so vast that an introductory guide for newcomers would appear welcome. Here, we aim to provide an accessible entry point to this growing field, with a particular focus on the black hole "photon ring": the bright, narrow ring of light that dominates images of a black hole and belongs to the black hole itself, rather than to its surrounding plasma. Far from an exhaustive review, this beginner's guide offers a pedagogical review of the key basic concepts and a brief summary of some results at the research frontier.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Cosmic ray transport in large-amplitude turbulence with small-scale field reversals

The nature of cosmic ray (CR) transport in the Milky Way remains elusive. The predictions of current micro-physical CR transport models in magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence are drastically different from what is observed. These models usually focus on MHD turbulence with a strong guide field and ignore the impact of turbulent intermittency on particle propagation. This motivates our studying the alternative regime of large-amplitude turbulence with $δB/B_0 \gg 1$, in which intermittent small-scale magnetic field reversals are ubiquitous. We study particle transport in such turbulence by integrating trajectories in stationary snapshots. To quantify spatial diffusion, we use a setup with continuous particle injection and escape, which we term the turbulent leaky box. We find that particle transport is very different from the strong-guide-field case. Low-energy particles are better confined than high-energy particles, despite less efficient pitch-angle isotropization at small energies. In the limit of weak guide field, energy-dependent confinement is driven by the energy-dependent (in)ability to follow reversing magnetic field lines exactly and by the scattering in regions of ``resonant curvature", where the field line bends on a scale that is of order the local particle gyro-radius. We derive a heuristic model of particle transport in magnetic folds that approximately reproduces the energy dependence of transport found numerically. We speculate that CR propagation in the Galaxy is regulated by the intermittent field reversals highlighted here and discuss the implications of our findings for CR transport in the Milky Way.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Charged Particle Motion in Neutron Star Magnetic Fields: A Comparison Between the Boris Algorithm and the Guiding Center Approximation

Neutron star emission originates typically from its magnetosphere due to radiating electrons. Trajectories of relativistic charged particles under uniform electromagnetic fields can be calculated analytically. However, under more complex and realistic fields, numerical solutions are required. Two common schemes are the Boris method, which solves the full equations of motion, and the guiding center approximation (GCA), which only evolves the orbital center. We compare both methods in a series of tests, discuss their characteristics and quantify their accuracy. We apply the methods to dipolar, quadrupolar, and quadrudipolar magnetic fields, as applicable for magnetospheres. It is essential to consider such realistic neutron star magnetic field geometries to model the emission from magnetars and pulsars. Our work can assist the Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) to understand emission from the surface and magnetosphere of neutron stars and to study their composition.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Synchrotron polarization signatures of surface waves in supermassive black hole jets

Supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN) are known to launch relativistic jets, which are observed across the entire electromagnetic spectrum and are thought to be efficient particle accelerators. Their primary radiation mechanism for radio emission is polarized synchrotron emission produced by a population of non-thermal electrons. In this Letter, we present a global general relativistic magnetohydrodynamical (GRMHD) simulation of a magnetically arrested disk (MAD). After the simulation reaches the MAD state, we show that waves are continuously launched from the vicinity of the black hole and propagate along the interface between the jet and the wind. At this interface, a steep gradient in velocity is present between the mildly relativistic wind and the highly relativistic jet. The interface is, therefore, a shear layer, and due to the shear, the waves generate roll-ups that alter the magnetic field configuration and the shear layer geometry. We then perform polarized radiation transfer calculations of our GRMHD simulation and find signatures of the waves in both total intensity and linear polarization, effectively lowering the fully resolved polarization fraction. The tell-tale polarization signatures of the waves could be observable by future Very Long Baseline Interferometric observations, e.g., by the next-generation Event Horizon Telescope.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Particle acceleration by magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability: mechanism for flares in black-hole accretion flows

We study the magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability in relativistic collisionless plasma, as an astrophysical process for nonthermal particle acceleration. We consider dense plasma on top of a highly magnetized cavity with sheared magnetic field. Using particle-in-cell simulations, we show that small plumes grow and merge progressively to form a large-scale plume, which broadens to drive rapid magnetic reconnection in the cavity. We find that this leads to efficient particle acceleration capable of explaining flares from the inner accretion flow onto the black hole Sgr A*.

astro-ph.HE↗