Hoyle-Lyttleton accretion in three dimensions

Abstract

We investigate the stability of gravitational accretion of an ideal gas onto a compact object moving through a uniform medium at Mach 3. Previous three-dimensional simulations have shown that such accretion is not stable, and that strong rotational "disk-like" flows are generated and accreted on short timescales. We re-address this problem using overset spherical grids that provide a factor of seven improvement in spatial resolution over previous simulations. With our higher spatial resolution we found these three-dimensional accretion flows remained remarkably axisymmetric. We examined two cases of accretion with different sized accretors. The larger accretor produced very steady flow, with the mass accretion rate varying by less than 0.02% over 30 flow times. The smaller accretor exhibited an axisymmetric breathing mode that modulated the mass accretion rate by a constant 20%. Nonetheless, the flow remained highly axisymmetric with only negligible accretion of angular momentum in both cases. © 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..