Radiative Cooling Changes the Dynamics of Magnetically Arrested Disks

We study magnetically arrested disks (MADs) around rotating black holes (BHs) under the influence of radiative cooling. We introduce a critical value of the mass accretion rate ${\dot{M}}_{{\rm{crit}}}$ for which the cooling by the synchrotron process efficiently radiates the thermal energy of the d...

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Main Authors: Akshay Singh, Damien Bégué, Asaf Pe’er
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2025-01-01
Series:The Astrophysical Journal Letters
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adb749
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author Akshay Singh
Damien Bégué
Asaf Pe’er
author_facet Akshay Singh
Damien Bégué
Asaf Pe’er
author_sort Akshay Singh
collection DOAJ
description We study magnetically arrested disks (MADs) around rotating black holes (BHs) under the influence of radiative cooling. We introduce a critical value of the mass accretion rate ${\dot{M}}_{{\rm{crit}}}$ for which the cooling by the synchrotron process efficiently radiates the thermal energy of the disk. We find ${\dot{M}}_{{\rm{crit}}}\approx 1{0}^{-5.5}{\dot{M}}_{{\rm{Edd}}}$ , where ${\dot{M}}_{{\rm{Edd}}}$ is the Eddington mass accretion rate. The normalization constant depends on the saturated magnetic flux and on the ratio of electron to proton temperatures, but not on the BH mass. We verify our analytical estimate using a suite of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations for a range of BH spin parameters a  ∈ {−0.94, −0.5, 0, 0.5, 0.94} and mass accretion rates ranging from $1{0}^{-7}{\dot{M}}_{{\rm{Edd}}}$ to $1{0}^{-4}{\dot{M}}_{{\rm{Edd}}}$ . We numerically observe that the MAD parameter and the jet efficiency vary by a factor of ≈2 as the mass accretion rate increases above ${\dot{M}}_{{\rm{crit}}}$ , which confirms our analytical result. We further detail how the forces satisfying the quasi-equilibrium of the disk change, with the magnetic contribution increasing as the thermal contribution decreases.
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spelling doaj-art-22c1bc9b41e9449dba5bab25e3ccdef72025-08-20T03:11:25ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal Letters2041-82052025-01-019811L1110.3847/2041-8213/adb749Radiative Cooling Changes the Dynamics of Magnetically Arrested DisksAkshay Singh0https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7515-5164Damien Bégué1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4477-1846Asaf Pe’er2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8667-0889Bar-Ilan University , Ramat-Gan 5290002, Israel ; akshay.singh@biu.ac.ilBar-Ilan University , Ramat-Gan 5290002, Israel ; akshay.singh@biu.ac.ilBar-Ilan University , Ramat-Gan 5290002, Israel ; akshay.singh@biu.ac.ilWe study magnetically arrested disks (MADs) around rotating black holes (BHs) under the influence of radiative cooling. We introduce a critical value of the mass accretion rate ${\dot{M}}_{{\rm{crit}}}$ for which the cooling by the synchrotron process efficiently radiates the thermal energy of the disk. We find ${\dot{M}}_{{\rm{crit}}}\approx 1{0}^{-5.5}{\dot{M}}_{{\rm{Edd}}}$ , where ${\dot{M}}_{{\rm{Edd}}}$ is the Eddington mass accretion rate. The normalization constant depends on the saturated magnetic flux and on the ratio of electron to proton temperatures, but not on the BH mass. We verify our analytical estimate using a suite of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations for a range of BH spin parameters a  ∈ {−0.94, −0.5, 0, 0.5, 0.94} and mass accretion rates ranging from $1{0}^{-7}{\dot{M}}_{{\rm{Edd}}}$ to $1{0}^{-4}{\dot{M}}_{{\rm{Edd}}}$ . We numerically observe that the MAD parameter and the jet efficiency vary by a factor of ≈2 as the mass accretion rate increases above ${\dot{M}}_{{\rm{crit}}}$ , which confirms our analytical result. We further detail how the forces satisfying the quasi-equilibrium of the disk change, with the magnetic contribution increasing as the thermal contribution decreases.https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adb749Black hole physicsMagnetohydrodynamical simulationsAccretion
spellingShingle Akshay Singh
Damien Bégué
Asaf Pe’er
Radiative Cooling Changes the Dynamics of Magnetically Arrested Disks
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Black hole physics
Magnetohydrodynamical simulations
Accretion
title Radiative Cooling Changes the Dynamics of Magnetically Arrested Disks
title_full Radiative Cooling Changes the Dynamics of Magnetically Arrested Disks
title_fullStr Radiative Cooling Changes the Dynamics of Magnetically Arrested Disks
title_full_unstemmed Radiative Cooling Changes the Dynamics of Magnetically Arrested Disks
title_short Radiative Cooling Changes the Dynamics of Magnetically Arrested Disks
title_sort radiative cooling changes the dynamics of magnetically arrested disks
topic Black hole physics
Magnetohydrodynamical simulations
Accretion
url https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adb749
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