Characteristic signatures in the thermal emission from accreting binary black holes

84Citations
Citations of this article
24Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

We present the results of a calculation of the thermal spectrum from a 2D, moving mesh, high-accuracy, viscous hydrodynamical simulation of an accreting supermassive black hole (SMBHs) binary. We include viscous heating, shock heating, and radiative cooling, evolving for longer than a viscous time so that we reach a quasi-steady accretion state. In agreement with previous work, we find that gas is efficiently stripped from the inner edge of the circumbinary disc and enters the cavity along accretion streams, which feed persistent 'minidiscs' surrounding each black hole.We also find that emission from the shock-heated minidiscs and accretion streams prevents any deficit in high-energy emission that may be expected inside the circumbinary cavity, and instead leads to a characteristic brightening of the spectrum beginning in soft X-rays.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Farris, B. D., Duffell, P., MacFadyen, A. I., & Haiman, Z. (2015). Characteristic signatures in the thermal emission from accreting binary black holes. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 446(1), L36–L40. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slu160

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free