arXiv subjects

Yan-fei Jiang

Publications and source records attributed to Yan-fei Jiang.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

X-ray Variability and Photosphere Evolution during Accretion Disk Formation in Tidal Disruption Events

The early time emission in tidal disruption events (TDEs) originates from both accretion and shocks, producing photons that eventually emerge from an inhomogeneous photosphere. We model disk formation following debris stream self-intersection in a TDE using three-dimensional, frequency-integrated and multi-group radiation hydrodynamic simulations. We find a more circularized disk forms about 24 days following the stream-stream collision, once the mass fallback rate passes its peak and the debris stream density decreases. Despite the absence of a circularized disk at early times, various shocks and the asymmetric photosphere are sufficient to drive a wide range of x-ray-to-optical ratios and soft-X-ray variability. We find that with strong apsidal precession, the first light is from the stream-stream collision. It launches an optically-thick outflow, but only produces modest prompt emission. The subsequent optical and ultraviolet (UV) light curve rise is mainly powered by shocks in the turbulent accretion flow close to the black hole. The optical-UV luminosity peaks roughly when the disk forms and shock-driven outflows subside. Radiation pressure clears the polar region and creates optically-thin channels. We obtain the broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) by post-processing multi-group simulations with 16-20 frequency groups. The SED has a black body component that peaks in the extreme UV. The soft X-ray component either resembles a thermal tail, or can be described by a power law associated with bulk Compton scattering. The blackbody parameters are broadly consistent with observed optical TDEs and vary weakly with viewing angle, but the soft X-ray emission is highly angle-dependent.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Pre-peak Emission in Tidal Disruption Events

The rising part of a tidal disruption event light curve provides unique insight into early emission and the onset of accretion. Various mechanisms are proposed to explain the pre-peak emission, including shocks from debris interaction and reprocessing of disk emission. We study the pre-peak emission and its influence on the gas circularization by a series of gray radiation hydrodynamic simulations with varying black hole mass. We find that given a super-Eddington fallback rate of 10\dot{M}_{Edd}, the stream-stream collision can occur multiple times and drive strong outflows of up to 9\dot{M}_{Edd}. By dispersing gas to \gtrsim 100rs, the outflow can delay gas circularization and leads to sub-Eddington accretion rates during the first few stream-stream collisions. The stream-stream collision shock and circularization shock can sustain a luminosity of ~10^{44}erg/s for days. The luminosity is generally sub-Eddington and shows a weak correlation with accretion rate at early time. The outflow is optically thick, yielding a reprocessing layer with a size of ~10^{14} cm and photospheric temperature of ~4\times10^{4}K.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

A Bright First Day for Tidal Disruption Event

Stream-stream collision may be an important pre-peak energy dissipation mechanism in tidal disruption events (TDEs). We perform local three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations in a wedge geometry including the gravity to study stream self-crossing, with emphasis on resolving the collision and following the subsequent outflow. We find that the collision can contribute to pre-peak optical emissions by converting $\gtrsim5\%$ of stream kinetic energy to radiation, yielding prompt emission of $\sim10^{42-44}\rm erg~s^{-1}$. The radiative efficiency is sensitive to stream mass fallback rates, and strongly depends on the downstream gas optical depth. Even for a sub-Eddington ($10\%$) mass fallback rate, the strong radiation pressure produced in the collision can form a local super-Eddington region near the collision site, where a fast, aspherical outflow is launched. Higher mass fallback rate usually leads to more optically-thick outflow and lower net radiative efficiency. For $\dot{M}\gtrsim0.1\dot{M}_{\rm Edd}$, the estimated photosphere size of the outflow can expand by one to two orders of magnitudes reaching $\sim10^{14}\rm cm$. The average gas temperature at this photospheric surface is a few $\times10^{4}$K, roughly consistent with inferred pre-peak photosphere properties for some optical TDEs. We find that the dynamics is sensitive to collision angle and collision radius, but the radiative efficiency or outflow properties show more complex dependency than is often assumed in ballistic models.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

CR Driven Multi-phase Gas Formed via Thermal Instability

Cosmic rays (CRs) are an important energy source in the circum-galactic medium (CGM) that impact the multi-phase gas structure and dynamics. We perform two-dimensional CR-magnetohydrodynamic simulations to investigate the role of CRs in accelerating multi-phase gas formed via thermal instability. We compare outflows driven by CRs to those driven by a hot wind with equivalent momentum. We find that CRs driven outflow produces lower density contrast between cold and hot gas due to non-thermal pressure support, and yields a more filamentary cloud morphology. While entrainment in a hot wind can lead to cold gas increasing due to efficient cooling, CRs tend to suppress cold gas growth. The mechanism of this suppression depends on magnetic field strength, with CRs either reducing cooling or shredding the clouds by differential acceleration. Despite the suppression of cold gas growth, CRs are able to launch the cold clouds to observed velocities without rapid destruction. The dynamical interaction between CRs ad multi-phase gas is also sensitive to the magnetic field strength. In relatively strong fields, the CRs are more important for direct momentum input to cold gas. In relatively weak fields, the CRs impact gas primarily by heating, which modifies gas pressure.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

Shock Breakout in 3-Dimensional Red Supergiant Envelopes

Using Athena++, we perform 3D Radiation-Hydrodynamic calculations of the radiative breakout of the shock wave in the outer envelope of a red supergiant (RSG) which has suffered core collapse and will become a Type IIP supernova. The intrinsically 3D structure of the fully convective RSG envelope yields key differences in the brightness and duration of the shock breakout (SBO) from that predicted in a 1D stellar model. First, the lower-density `halo' of material outside of the traditional photosphere in 3D models leads to a shock breakout at lower densities than 1D models. This would prolong the duration of the shock breakout flash at any given location on the surface to $\approx$1-2 hours. However, we find that the even larger impact is the intrinsically 3D effect associated with large-scale fluctuations in density that cause the shock to break out at different radii at different times. This substantially prolongs the SBO duration to $\approx$3-6 hours and implies a diversity of radiative temperatures, as different patches across the stellar surface are at different stages of their radiative breakout and cooling at any given time. These predicted durations are in better agreement with existing observations of SBO. The longer durations lower the predicted luminosities by a factor of 3-10 ($L_\mathrm{bol}\sim10^{44}\mathrm{erg\ s^{-1}}$), and we derive the new scalings of brightness and duration with explosion energies and stellar properties. These intrinsically 3D properties eliminate the possibility of using observed rise times to measure the stellar radius via light-travel time effects.

astro-ph.SR↗