arXiv subjects

Hiroyuki R. Takahashi

Publications and source records attributed to Hiroyuki R. Takahashi.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Radiation Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Sub-Eddington accretion Flows in AGN: Origin of Soft X-ray Excess and Rapid Time Variabilities

We investigate the origin of the soft X-ray excess component in Seyfert galaxies observed when their luminosity exceeds 0.1% of the Eddington luminosity ($L_{\mathrm{Edd}}$). The evolution of a dense blob in radiatively inefficient accretion flow (RIAF) is simulated by applying a radiation magnetohydrodynamic code, CANS+R. When the accretion rate onto a $10^7M_{\odot}$ black hole exceeds 10% of the Eddington accretion rate ($\dot M_{\rm Edd}=L_{\rm Edd}/c^2$, where $c$ is the speed of light)}, the dense blob shrinks vertically because of radiative cooling and forms a Thomson thick, relatively cool ($\sim10^{7-8}$ K) region. The cool region coexists with the optically thin, hot ($T\sim10^{11}~\mathrm{K}$) RIAF near the black hole. The cool disk is responsible for the soft X-ray emission, while hard X-rays are emitted from the hot inner accretion flow. The soft X-ray emitting region coexists with the optically thin, hot ($T \sim 10^{11}~\mathrm{K}$), radiatively inefficient accretion flow (RIAF) near the black hole. Such a hybrid structure of hot and cool accretion flows is consistent with the observations of both hard and soft X-ray emissions from `changing-look' active galactic nuclei (CLAGN). Furthermore, we find that quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) are excited in the soft X-ray emitting region. These oscillations can be the origin of rapid X-ray time variabilities observed in CLAGN.

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arXiv2019

Magnetohydrodynamic Simulation Code CANS+: Assessments and Applications

We present a new magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation code with the aim of providing accurate numerical solutions to astrophysical phenomena where discontinuities, shock waves, and turbulence are inherently important. The code implements the HLLD approximate Riemann solver, the fifth-order-monotonicity-preserving interpolation (MP5) scheme, and the hyperbolic divergence cleaning method for a magnetic field. This choice of schemes significantly improved numerical accuracy and stability, and saved computational costs in multidimensional problems. Numerical tests of one- and two-dimensional problems showed the advantages of using the high-order scheme by comparing with results from a standard second-order TVD MUSCL scheme. The present code enabled us to explore long-term evolution of a three-dimensional accretion disk around a black hole, in which compressible MHD turbulence caused continuous mass accretion via nonlinear growth of the magneto-rotational instability (MRI). Numerical tests with various computational cell sizes exhibited a convergent picture of the early nonlinear growth of the MRI in a global model, and indicated that the MP5 scheme has more than twice the resolution of the MUSCL scheme in practical applications.

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arXiv2019

Super-Eddington growth of black holes in the early Universe: effects of disk radiation spectra

We investigate the properties of accretion flows onto a black hole (BH) with a mass of $M_{\rm BH}$ embedded in an initially uniform gas cloud with a density of $n_{\infty}$ in order to study rapid growth of BHs in the early Universe. In previous work, the conditions for super-Eddington accretion from outside the Bondi radius were studied by assuming that radiation produced at the vicinity of the central BH has a single-power-law spectrum $ν^{-α}$ at $hν\geq 13.6~{\rm eV}$ ($α\sim 1.5$). However, radiation spectra depends on the BH mass and accretion rate. Here, we perform two-dimensional multi-frequency radiation hydrodynamical simulations taking into account more realistic radiation spectra associated with the properties of nuclear accretion disks. We find that the condition for a transition to super-Eddington accretion is alleviated for a wide range of masses ($10\lesssim M_{\rm BH}/M_{\odot} \lesssim 10^6$) because photoionization for accretion disk spectra are less efficient than those for single-power-law spectra. For disk spectra, the transition to super-Eddington is more likely to occur for lower BH masses because the radiation spectra become too hard to ionize the gas. Even when accretion flows are exposed to anisotropic radiation, the effect due to radiation spectra shrinks the ionized region and likely leads to the transition to a wholly neutral accretion phase. Finally, by generalizing our simulation results, we construct a new analytical criterion required for super-Eddington accretion; $(M_{\rm BH}/10^5~M_{\odot}) (n_{\infty}/10^4~{\rm cm^{-3}}) \gtrsim 2.4~ (\langleε\rangle /100~{\rm eV})^{-5/9}$, where $\langleε\rangle$ is the mean energy of ionizing radiation from the central BH.

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arXiv2018

Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of a Plunging Black Hole into a Molecular Cloud

Using two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we investigated the gas dynamics around a black hole plunging into a molecular cloud. In these calculations, we assumed a parallel-magnetic-field layer in the cloud. The size of the accelerated region is far larger than the Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton radius, being approximately inversely proportional to the Alfvén Mach number for the plunging black hole. Our results successfully reproduce the "Y" shape in position velocity maps of the "Bullet" in the W44 molecular cloud. The size of the Bullet is also reproduced within an order of magnitude using a reasonable parameter set. This consistency supports the shooting model of the Bullet, according to which an isolated black hole plunged into a molecular cloud to form a compact broad-velocity-width feature.

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arXiv2018

Three-dimensional structure of clumpy outflow from supercritical accretion flow onto black holes

We perform global three-dimensional (3D) radiation-hydrodynamic (RHD) simulations of out- flow from supercritical accretion flow around a 10 Msun black hole. We only solve the outflow part, starting from the axisymmetric 2D simulation data in a nearly steady state but with small perturbations in a sinusoidal form being added in the azimuthal direction. The mass accretion rate onto the black hole is ~10^2 L_E/c^2 in the underlying 2D simulation data and the outflow rate is ~10 L_E/c^2 (with LE and c being the Eddington luminosity and speed of light, respectively). We first confirm the emergence of clumpy outflow, which was discovered by the 2D RHD simulations, above the photosphere located at a few hundreds of Schwarzschild radii (r_S) from the central black hole. As prominent 3D features we find that the clumps have the shape of a torn sheet, rather than a cut string, and that they are rotating around the central black hole with a sub-Keplerian velocity at a distance of ~10^3 r_S from the center. The typical clump size is ~30 r_S or less in the radial direction, and is more elongated in the angular directions, ~hundreds of r_S at most. The sheet separation ranges from 50 to 150 r_S. We expect stochastic time variations when clumps pass across the line of the sight of a distant observer. Variation timescales are estimated to be several seconds for a black hole with mass of ten to several tens of Msun, in rough agreement with the observations of some ultra-luminous X-ray sources.

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arXiv2017

Supercritical Accretion onto a Non-Magnetized Neutron Star: Why is it Feasible?

To understand why supercritical accretion is feasible onto a neutron star, we carefully examine the accretion flow dynamics by 2.5-dimensional general relativistic (GR) radiation magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) simulations, comparing the cases of accretion onto a non-magnetized neutron star (NS) and that onto a black hole (BH). Supercritical BH accretion is relatively easy, since BH can swallow excess radiation energy, so that radiation flux can be inward in its vicinity. This mechanism can never work for NS which has a solid surface. In fact, we find that the radiation force is always outward. Instead, we found significant reduction in the mass accretion rate due to strong radiation-pressure driven outflow. The radiation flux $F_\mathrm{rad}$ is self-regulated such that the radiation force balances with the sum of gravity and centrifugal forces. Even when the radiation energy density much exceeds that expected from the Eddington luminosity $E_\mathrm{rad} \simeq F_\mathrm{rad}τ/c> 10^2 L_\mathrm{Edd}/(4πr^2 c)$, the radiation flux is always kept below the certain value which makes it possible not to blow all the gas away from the disk. These effects make supercritical accretion feasible. We also find that a settling region, where accretion is significantly decelerated by radiation cushion, is formed around the NS surface. In the settling region, the radiation temperature and mass density roughly follow $T_\mathrm{rad} \propto r^{-1}$ and $ρ\propto r^{-3}$, respectively. No settling region appears around the BH so that matter can be directly swallowed by the BH with supersonic speed.

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arXiv2017

High-frequency quasi-periodic light variations from arc-shaped gas clouds falling to a black hole

We investigate dynamical and radiative properties of arc-shaped gas clouds falling onto a stellar mass black hole based on the three-dimensional general relativistic radiation-magnetohydrodynamics (3D-GRRMHD) simulation data. Assuming that the gas clouds radiate due mainly to the free-free emission and/or optically thick, inverse Compton scattering, we calculate how the emissivity distributions develop with time. We find that (1) gas clouds, each of which has a ring-like or arc shape, are intermittently formed, and that (2) they slowly fall to the black hole, keeping nearly the Keplerian orbital velocity. These features support the dynamical properties of the gas clouds assumed in the spin measurement method proposed by Moriyama & Mineshige 2015, but the radius of the inner edge of the accretion disk is larger than that of the marginally stable orbit (ISCO). Next, we examine how each gas cloud is observed by a distant observer by calculating the photon trajectories in the black hole space-time. The luminosity of the accretion flow exhibits significant time variations on different timescales, reflecting the time evolution of the gas density distributions. The relatively slow variations on the time durations of 0.08-0.10 sec is due to the formation and fall of gas clouds, while quasi-periodic flux peaks with short time intervals (0.01 sec) are due to the quasi-periodic enhancement of light from the non-axisymmetric arc-shaped clouds through the beaming effect. This may account for the high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (HF QPOs) observed in black hole binaries. The observational implications and future issues are briefly discussed.

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arXiv2017

General relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulations of supercritical accretion onto magnetized neutron star; -modeling of ultra luminous x-ray pulsars

By performing 2.5-dimensional general relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we demonstrate supercritical accretion onto a non-rotating, magnetized neutron star, where the magnetic field strength of dipole fields is $10^{10}$ G on the star surface. We found the supercritical accretion flow consists of two parts; the accretion columns and the truncated accretion disk. The supercritical accretion disk, which appears far from the neutron star, is truncated at around $\sim 3R_*$ ($R_*=10^6$ cm is the neutron star radius), where the magnetic pressure via the dipole magnetic fields balances with the radiation pressure of the disks. The angular momentum of the disk around the truncation radius is effectively transported inward through magnetic torque by dipole fields, inducing the spin up of a neutron star. The evaluated spin up rate, $\sim -10^{-11}$ s s$^{-1}$, is consistent with the recent observations of the ultra luminous X-ray pulsars. Within the truncation radius, the gas falls onto neutron star along dipole fields, which results in a formation of accretion columns onto north and south hemispheres. The net accretion rate and the luminosity of the column are $\sim 66L_{\rm Edd}/c^2$ and $\lesssim 10L_{\rm Edd}$, where $L_{\rm Edd}$ is the Eddington luminosity and c is the light speed. Our simulations support a hypothesis whereby the ultra luminous X-ray pulsars are powered by the supercritical accretion onto the magnetized neutron stars.

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arXiv2016

Formation of Overheated Regions and Truncated Disks around Black Holes; Three-dimensional General Relativistic Radiation-magnetohydrodynamics Simulations

Using three-dimensional general relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulations of accretion flows around stellar mass black holes, we report that the relatively cold disk ($\gtrsim 10^{7}$K) is truncated near the black hole. Hot and less-dense regions, of which the gas temperature is $ \gtrsim 10^9$K and more than ten times higher than the radiation temperature (overheated regions), appear within the truncation radius. The overheated regions also appear above as well as below the disk, and sandwich the cold disk, leading to the effective Compton upscattering. The truncation radius is $\sim 30 r_{\rm g}$ for $\dot{M} \sim L_{\rm Edd}/c^2$, where $r_{\rm g}, \dot M, L_\mathrm{Edd}, c$ are the gravitational radius, mass accretion rate, Eddington luminosity, and light speed. Our results are consistent with observations of very high state, whereby the truncated disk is thought to be embedded in the hot rarefied regions. The truncation radius shifts inward to $\sim 10 r_{\rm g}$ with increasing mass accretion rate $\dot{M} \sim 100 L_{\rm Edd}/c^2$, which is very close to an innermost stable circular orbit. This model corresponds to the slim disk state observed in ultra luminous X-ray sources. Although the overheated regions shrink if the Compton cooling effectively reduces the gas temperature, the sandwich-structure does not disappear at the range of $\dot{M} \lesssim 100L_{\rm Edd}/c^2$. Our simulations also reveal that the gas temperature in the overheated regions depends on black hole spin, which would be due to efficient energy transport from black hole to disks through the Poynting flux, resulting gas heating.

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arXiv2015

Radiation Hydrodynamic Simulations of Line-Driven Disk Winds for Ultra Fast Outflows

Using two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations, we investigate origin of the ultra fast outflows (UFOs) that are often observed in luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We found that the radiation force due to the spectral lines generates strong winds (line-driven disk winds) that are launched from the inner region of accretion disks (~30 Schwarzschild radii). A wide range of black hole masses ($M_{\rm BH}$) and Eddington ratios ($\varepsilon$) was investigated to study conditions for causing the line-driven winds. For $M_{\rm BH} = 10^6-10^9 M_\odot$ and $\varepsilon = 0.1-0.7$, funnel-shaped disk winds appear, in which dense matter is accelerated outward with an opening angle of 70-80 deg and with 10% of the light speed. If we observe the wind along its direction, the velocity, the column density, and the ionization state are consistent with those of the observed UFOs. As long as the obscuration by the torus does not affect the observations of X-ray bands, the UFOs could be statistically observed in about 13-28% of the luminous AGNs, which is not inconsistent with the observed ratio (~40%). We also found that the results are insensitive to the X-ray luminosity and the density of the disk surface. Thus, we can conclude that the UFOs could exist in any luminous AGNs, such as narrow-line Seyfert 1s (NLS1s) and quasars with $\varepsilon > 0.1$, in which fast line-driven winds are associated.

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arXiv2014

Radiation Drag Effects in Black Hole Outflows from Super-critical Accretion Disks via Special Relativistic Radiation Magnetohydrodynamics Simulations

By performing 2.5-dimensional special relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulations, we study the super-critical accretion disks and the outflows launched via the radiation force. We find that the outflow is accelerated by the radiation flux force, but the radiation drag force prevents the outflow velocity from increasing. The outflow velocity saturates around 30-40% of the light speed around the rotation axis, since then the flux force balances with the drag force. Our simulations show that the outflow velocity is kept nearly constant in the regime of \dot{M}_{BH} ~ 100-1000 L_{Edd}/c^2, where \dot{M}_{BH} is the mass accretion rate, L_{Edd} is the Eddington luminosity, and c is the light speed. Such a faster outflow is surrounded by a slower outflow of ~ 0.1c. This velocity is also determined by force balance between the radiation flux force and the radiation drag. The radiation drag works to collimate the slower outflow in cooperation with the Lorentz force, although the faster outflow is mainly collimated by the Lorentz force. The kinetic energy is carried by the slower outflow rather than by the faster outflow. The total kinetic luminosity of the outflow as well as the photon luminosity is ~ L_{Edd}, almost independent of the mass accretion rate.

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arXiv2014

Linear Growth of the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability with an Adiabatic Cosmic-ray Gas

We investigate effects of cosmic-rays on the linear growth of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Cosmic-rays are treated as an adiabatic gas and allowed to diffuse along magnetic field lines. We calculated the dispersion relation of the instability for various sets of two free parameters, the ratio of the cosmic-ray pressure to the thermal gas pressure and the diffusion coefficient. Including cosmic-ray effects, a shear layer is more destabilized and the growth rates can be enhanced in comparison with the ideal magnetohydrodynamical case. Whether the growth rate is effectively enhanced or not depends on the diffusion coefficient of cosmic-rays. We obtain the criterion for effective enhancement by comparing the growing time scale of the instability with the diffusion time scale of cosmic-rays. These results can be applied to various astrophysical phenomena where a velocity shear is present, such as outflows from star-forming galaxies, AGN jet, channel flows resulting from the nonlinear development of the magnetorotational instability, and galactic disks.

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arXiv2013

Numerical Treatment of Anisotropic Radiation Field Coupling with the Relativistic Resistive Magnetofluids

We develop a numerical scheme for solving a fully special relativistic resistive radiation magnetohydrodynamics. Our code guarantees conservations of total mass, momentum and energy. Radiation energy density and radiation flux are consistently updated using the M-1 closure method, which can resolve an anisotropic radiation fields in contrast to the Eddington approximation as well as the flux-limited diffusion approximation. For the resistive part, we adopt a simple form of the Ohm's law. The advection terms are explicitly solved with an approximate Riemann solver, mainly HLL scheme, and HLLC and HLLD schemes for some tests. The source terms, which describe the gas-radiation interaction and the magnetic energy dissipation, are implicitly integrated, relaxing the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy condition even in optically thick regime or a large magnetic Reynolds number regime. Although we need to invert $4\times 4$ (for gas-radiation interaction) and $3\times 3$ (for magnetic energy dissipation) matrices at each grid point for implicit integration, they are obtained analytically without preventing massive parallel computing. We show that our code gives reasonable outcomes in numerical tests for ideal magnetohydrodynamics, propagating radiation, and radiation hydrodynamics. We also applied our resistive code to the relativistic Petschek type magnetic reconnection, revealing the reduction of the reconnection rate via the radiation drag.

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arXiv2012

Explicit-Implicit Scheme for Relativistic Radiation Hydrodynamics

We propose an explicit-implicit scheme for numerically solving Special Relativistic Radiation Hydrodynamic (RRHD) equations, which ensures a conservation of total energy and momentum (matter and radiation). In our scheme, 0th and 1st moment equations of the radiation transfer equation are numerically solved without employing a flux-limited diffusion (FLD) approximation. For an hyperbolic term, of which the time scale is the light crossing time when the flow velocity is comparable to the speed of light, is explicitly solved using an approximate Riemann solver. Source terms describing an exchange of energy and momentum between the matter and the radiation via the gas-radiation interaction are implicitly integrated using an iteration method. The implicit scheme allows us to relax the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy condition in optically thick media, where heating/cooling and scattering timescales could be much shorter than the dynamical timescale. We show that our numerical code can pass test problems of one- and two-dimensional radiation energy transport, and one-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics. Our newly developed scheme could be useful for a number of relativistic astrophysical problems. We also discuss how to extend our explicit-implicit scheme to the relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamics.

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arXiv2011

Scaling Law of Relativistic Sweet-Parker Type Magnetic Reconnection

Relativistic Sweet-Parker type magnetic reconnection is investigated by relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamic (RRMHD) simulations. As an initial setting, we assume anti-parallel magnetic fields and a spatially uniform resistivity. A perturbation imposed on the magnetic fields triggers magnetic reconnection around a current sheet, and the plasma inflows into the reconnection region. The inflows are then heated due to ohmic dissipation in the diffusion region, and finally become relativistically hot outflows. The outflows are not accelerated to ultra-relativistic speeds (i.e., Lorentz factor ~ 1), even when the magnetic energy dominates the thermal and rest mass energies in the inflow region. Most of the magnetic energy in the inflow region is converted into the thermal energy of the outflow during the reconnection process. The energy conversion from magnetic to thermal energy in the diffusion region results in an increase in the plasma inertia. This prevents the outflows from being accelerated to ultra-relativistic speeds. We find that the reconnection rate R obeys the scaling relation R S^{-0.5}, where S is the Lundquist number. This feature is the same as that of non-relativistic reconnection. Our results are consistent with the theoretical predictions of Lyubarsky (2005) for Sweet-Parker type magnetic reconnection.

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arXiv2011

Relativistic Expansion of Magnetic Loops at the Self-similar Stage II: Magnetized outflows interacting with the ambient plasma

We obtained self-similar solutions of relativistically expanding magnetic loops by assuming axisymmetry and a purely radial flow. The stellar rotation and the magnetic fields in the ambient plasma are neglected. We include the Newtonian gravity of the central star. These solutions are extended from those in our previous work (Takahashi, Asano, & Matsumoto 2009) by taking into account discontinuities such as the contact discontinuity and the shock. The global plasma flow consists of three regions, the outflowing region, the post shocked region, and the ambient plasma. They are divided by two discontinuities. The solutions are characterized by the radial velocity, which plays a role of the self-similar parameter in our solutions. The shock Lorentz factor gradually increases with radius. It can be approximately represented by the power of radius with the power law index of 0.25. We also carried out magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the evolution of magnetic loops to study the stability and the generality of our analytical solutions. We used the analytical solutions as the initial condition and the inner boundary conditions. We confirmed that our solutions are stable over the simulation time and that numerical results nicely recover the analytical solutions. We then carried out numerical simulations to study the generality of our solutions by changing the power law index δof the ambient plasma density ρ_0 \propto r^{-δ}. We alter the power law index δfrom 3.5 in the analytical solutions. The analytical solutions are used as the initial conditions inside the shock in all simulations. We observed that the shock Lorentz factor increases with time when δis larger than 3, while it decreases with time when δis smaller than 3. The shock Lorentz factor is proportional to t^{(δ-3)/2}. These results are consistent with the analytical studies by Shapiro (1979).

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arXiv2010

Magnetic Field Decay Due to the Wave-Particle Resonances in the Outer Crust of the Neutron Star

Bearing in mind the application to the outer crust of the neutron stars (NSs), we investigate the magnetic field decay by means of the fully relativistic Particle-In-Cell simulations. Numerical computations are carried out in 2-dimensions, in which the initial magnetic fields are set to be composed both of the uniform magnetic fields that model the global fields penetrating the NS and of the turbulent magnetic fields that would be originated from the Hall cascade of the large-scale turbulence. Our results show that the whistler cascade of the turbulence transports the magnetic energy preferentially in the direction perpendicular to the uniform magnetic fields. It is also found that the distribution function of electrons becomes anisotropic because electrons with lower energies are predominantly heated in the direction parallel to the uniform magnetic fields due to the Landau resonance, while electrons with higher energies are heated mainly by the cyclotron resonance that makes the distribution function isotropic for the high energy tails. Furthermore we point out that the degree of anisotropy takes maximum as a function of the initial turbulent magnetic energy. As an alternative to the conventional ohmic dissipation, we propose that the magnetic fields in the outer crust of NSs, cascading down to the electron inertial scale via the whistler turbulence, would decay predominantly by the dissipation processes through the Landau damping and the cyclotron resonance.

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arXiv2010

Stability of MRI turbulent Accretion Disks

Based on the characteristics of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) and the MRI-driven turbulence, we construct a steady model for a geometrically thin disk using "non-standard" $α$-prescription. The efficiency of the angular momentum transport depends on the magnetic Prandtl number, $Pm = ν/η$, where $ν$ and $η$ are the microscopic viscous and magnetic diffusivities. In our disk model, Shakura-Sunyaev's $α$-parameter has a power-law dependence on the magnetic Prandtl number, that is $α\propto Pm^δ$ where $δ$ is the constant power-law index. Adopting Spitzer's microscopic diffusivities, the magnetic Prandtl number becomes a decreasing function of the disk radius when $δ> 0$. The transport efficiency of the angular momentum and the viscous heating rate are thus smaller in the outer part of the disk, while these are impacted by the size of index $δ$. We find that the disk becomes more unstable to the gravitational instability for a larger value of index $δ$. The most remarkable feature of our disk model is that the thermal and secular instabilities can grow in its middle part even if the radiation pressure is negligibly small in the condition $δ> 2/3$. In the realistic disk systems, it would be difficult to maintain the steady mass accretion state unless the $Pm$-dependence of MRI-driven turbulence is relatively weak.

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