ALBERT

Description: Tidal disruption events (TDEs) explore the whole range of accretion rates and configurations. A challenging question is what the corresponding light curves of these events are. We explore numerically the disc luminosity and the conditions within the inner region of the disc using a fully general relativistic slim disc model. Those conditions determine the magnitude of the magnetic field that engulfs the black hole and this, in turn, determines the Blandford–Znajek jet power. We estimate this power in two different ways and show that they are self-consistent. We find, as expected earlier from analytic arguments , that neither the disc luminosity nor the jet power follows the accretion rate throughout the disruption event. The disc luminosity varies only logarithmically with the accretion rate at super-Eddington luminosities. The jet power follows initially the accretion rate but remains constant after the transition from super- to sub-Eddington. At lower accretion rates at the end of the magnetically arrested disc (MAD) phase, the disc becomes thin and the jet may stop altogether. These new estimates of the jet power and disc luminosity that do not simply follow the mass fallback rate should be taken into account when searching for TDEs and analysing light curves of TDE candidates. Identification of some of the above-mentioned transitions may enable us to estimate better TDE parameters.

Description: Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are thought to come from the core collapse of Wolf–Rayet stars. Whereas their stellar masses M * have a rather narrow distribution, the population of GRBs is very diverse, with gamma-ray luminosities L spanning several orders of magnitude. This suggests the existence of a ‘hidden’ stellar variable whose burst-to-burst variation leads to a spread in L . Whatever this hidden variable is, its variation should not noticeably affect the shape of GRB light curves, which display a constant luminosity (in a time-average sense) followed by a sharp drop at the end of the burst seen with Swift /XRT. We argue that such a hidden variable is progenitor star's large-scale magnetic flux. Shortly after the core collapse, most of stellar magnetic flux accumulates near the black hole (BH) and remains there. The flux extracts BH rotational energy and powers jets of roughly a constant luminosity, L j . However, once BH mass accretion rate $\dot{M}$ falls below ~ L j / c 2 , the flux becomes dynamically important and diffuses outwards, with the jet luminosity set by the rapidly declining mass accretion rate, $L_{\rm j}\sim \dot{M}c^2$ . This provides a potential explanation for the sharp end of GRBs and the universal shape of their light curves. During the GRB, gas infall translates spatial variation of stellar magnetic flux into temporal variation of L j . We make use of the deviations from constancy in L j to perform stellar magnetic flux ‘tomography’. Using this method, we infer the presence of magnetized tori in the outer layers of progenitor stars for GRB 920513 and GRB 940210.

Description: Relativistic jets are associated with extreme astrophysical phenomena, like the core collapse of massive stars in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and the accretion on to supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei. It is generally accepted that these jets are powered electromagnetically, by the magnetized rotation of a central compact object (black hole or neutron star). However, how the jets produce the observed emission and survive the propagation for many orders of magnitude in distance without being disrupted by current-driven instabilities is the subject of active debate. We carry out time-dependent 3D relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of relativistic, Poynting-flux-dominated jets. The jets are launched self-consistently by the rotation of a strongly magnetized central object. This determines the natural degree of azimuthal magnetic field winding, a crucial factor that controls jet stability. We find that the jets are susceptible to two types of instability: (i) a global, external kink mode that grows on long time-scales. It bodily twists the jet, reducing its propagation velocity. We show analytically that in flat density profiles, like the ones associated with galactic cores, the external mode grows and may stall the jet. In the steep profiles of stellar envelopes the external kink weakens as the jet propagates outward. (ii) a local, internal kink mode that grows over short time-scales and causes small-angle magnetic reconnection and conversion of about half of the jet electromagnetic energy flux into heat. We suggest that internal kink instability is the main dissipation mechanism responsible for powering GRB prompt emission.

Description: Simple assumptions made regarding electron thermodynamics often limit the extent to which general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations can be applied to observations of low-luminosity accreting black holes. We present, implement, and test a model that self-consistently evolves an entropy equation for the electrons and takes into account the effects of spatially varying electron heating and relativistic anisotropic thermal conduction along magnetic field lines. We neglect the backreaction of electron pressure on the dynamics of the accretion flow. Our model is appropriate for systems accreting at 〈〈10 –5 of the Eddington accretion rate, so radiative cooling by electrons can be neglected. It can be extended to higher accretion rates in the future by including electron cooling and proton–electron Coulomb collisions. We present a suite of tests showing that our method recovers the correct solution for electron heating under a range of circumstances, including strong shocks and driven turbulence. Our initial applications to axisymmetric simulations of accreting black holes show that (1) physically motivated electron heating rates that depend on the local magnetic field strength yield electron temperature distributions significantly different from the constant electron-to-proton temperature ratios assumed in previous work, with higher electron temperatures concentrated in the coronal region between the disc and the jet; (2) electron thermal conduction significantly modifies the electron temperature in the inner regions of black hole accretion flows if the effective electron mean free path is larger than the local scaleheight of the disc (at least for the initial conditions and magnetic field configurations we study). The methods developed in this work are important for producing more realistic predictions for the emission from accreting black holes such as Sagittarius A* and M87; these applications will be explored in future work.

Description: Energy deposition by active galactic nuclei jets into the ambient medium can affect galaxy formation and evolution, the cooling of gas flows at the centres of galaxy clusters, and the growth of the supermassive black holes. However, the processes that couple jet power to the ambient medium and determine jet morphology are poorly understood. For instance, there is no agreement on the cause of the well-known Fanaroff–Riley (FR) morphological dichotomy of jets, with FRI jets being shorter and less stable than FRII jets. We carry out global 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations of relativistic jets propagating through the ambient medium. We show that the flat density profiles of galactic cores slow down and collimate the jets, making them susceptible to the 3D magnetic kink instability. We obtain a critical power, which depends on the galaxy core mass and radius, below which jets become kink-unstable within the core, stall, and inflate cavities filled with relativistically hot plasma. Jets above the critical power stably escape the core and form powerful backflows. Thus, the kink instability controls the jet morphology and can lead to the FR dichotomy. The model-predicted dependence of the critical power on the galaxy optical luminosity agrees well with observations.

Description: We study the effect of radio-jet core shift, which is a dependence of the position of the jet radio core on the observational frequency. We derive a new method of measuring the jet magnetic field based on both the value of the shift and the observed radio flux, which complements the standard method that assumes equipartition. Using both methods, we re-analyse the blazar sample of Zamaninasab et al. We find that equipartition is satisfied only if the jet opening angle in the radio core region is close to the values found observationally, ~=0.1–0.2 divided by the bulk Lorentz factor, j . Larger values, e.g. 1/ j , would imply magnetic fields much above equipartition. A small jet opening angle implies in turn the magnetization parameter of 〈〈1. We determine the jet magnetic flux taking into account this effect. We find that the transverse-averaged jet magnetic flux is fully compatible with the model of jet formation due to black hole (BH) spin-energy extraction and the accretion being a magnetically arrested disc (MAD). We calculate the jet average mass-flow rate corresponding to this model and find it consists of a substantial fraction of the mass accretion rate. This suggests the jet composition with a large fraction of baryons. We also calculate the average jet power, and find it moderately exceeds the accretion power, $\dot{M} c^2$ , reflecting BH spin energy extraction. We find our results for radio galaxies at low Eddington ratios are compatible with MADs but require a low radiative efficiency, as predicted by standard accretion models.

Description: Pulsars are famous for their rotational stability. Most of them steadily spin-down and display a highly repetitive pulse shape. But some pulsars experience timing irregularities such as nulling, intermittency, mode changing and timing noise. As changes in the pulse shape are often correlated with timing irregularities, precession is a possible cause of these phenomena. Whereas pulsar magnetospheres are filled with plasma, most pulsar precession studies were carried out within the vacuum approximation and neglected the effects of magnetospheric currents and charges. Recent numerical simulations of plasma-filled pulsar magnetospheres provide us with a detailed quantitative description of magnetospheric torques exerted on the pulsar surface. In this paper, we present the study of neutron star evolution using these new torque expressions. We show that they lead to (1) much slower long-term evolution of pulsar parameters and (2) much less extreme solutions for these parameters than the vacuum magnetosphere models. To facilitate the interpretation of observed pulsar timing residuals, we derive an analytic model that (1) describes the time evolution of non-spherical pulsars and (2) translates the observed pulsar timing residuals into the geometrical parameters of the pulsar. We apply this model to two pulsars with very different temporal behaviours. For the pulsar B1828-11, we demonstrate that the timing residual curves allow two pulsar geometries: one with stellar deformation pointing along the magnetic axis and one along the rotational axis. For the Crab pulsar, we use the model show that the recent observation of its magnetic and rotational axes moving away from each other can be explained by precession.

Description: Rotating neutron stars, or pulsars and magnetars, are plausibly the source of power behind many astrophysical systems, such as gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, pulsar wind nebulae, and supernova remnants. In the past several years, three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulations made it possible to compute pulsar spin-down luminosity from first principles and revealed that oblique pulsar winds are more powerful than aligned ones. However, what causes this enhanced power output of oblique pulsars is not understood. In this work, using time-dependent 3D magnetohydrodynamic and force-free simulations, we show that, contrary to the standard paradigm, the open magnetic flux, which carries the energy away from the pulsar, is laterally non-uniform. We argue that this non-uniformity is the primary reason for the increased luminosity of oblique pulsars. To demonstrate this, we construct simple analytic descriptions of aligned and orthogonal pulsar winds and combine them to obtain an accurate 3D description of the pulsar wind for any obliquity. Our approach describes both the warped magnetospheric current sheet and the smooth variation of pulsar wind properties outside of it. We find that the jump in magnetic field components across the current sheet decreases with increasing obliquity, which could be a mechanism that reduces dissipation in near-orthogonal pulsars. Our analytical description of the pulsar wind can be used for constructing models of pulsar gamma-ray emission, pulsar wind nebulae, neutron star powered ultra-luminous X-ray sources, and magnetar-powered core-collapse gamma-ray bursts and supernovae.

Description: A new general relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamical code koral is described, which employs the M1 scheme to close the radiation moment equations. The code has been successfully verified against a number of tests. Axisymmetric simulations of super-critical magnetized accretion on non-rotating ( a *  = 0.0) and spinning ( a *  = 0.9) black holes are presented. The accretion rates in the two models are $\dot{M}\approx 100{\rm -}200 \dot{M}_{\rm Edd}$ . These first general relativistic simulations of super-critical black hole accretion are potentially relevant to tidal disruption events and hyper-accreting supermassive black holes in the early Universe. Both simulated models are optically and geometrically thick, and have funnels through which energy escapes in the form of relativistic gas, Poynting flux and radiative flux. The jet is significantly more powerful in the a *  = 0.9 run. The net energy outflow rate in the two runs correspond to efficiencies of 5 per cent ( a *  = 0) and 33 per cent ( a *  = 0.9), as measured with respect to the mass accretion rate at the black hole. These efficiencies agree well with those measured in previous simulations of non-radiative geometrically thick discs. Furthermore, in the a *  = 0.9 run, the outflow power appears to originate in the spinning black hole, suggesting that the associated physics is again similar in non-radiative and super-critical accretion flows. While the two simulations are efficient in terms of total energy outflow, both runs are radiatively inefficient. Their luminosities are only ~1–10 L Edd , which corresponds to a radiative efficiency ~0.1 per cent. Interestingly, most of the radiative luminosity emerges through the funnels where the local radiative flux is highly super-Eddington.