Recent observations and theoretical work on gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) favor the central engine model of a Kerr black hole (BH) surrounded by a magnetized neutrino-dominated accretion flow (NDAF). The magnetic coupling between the BH and disk through a large-scale closed magnetic field exerts a torque on the disk, and transports the rotational energy from the BH to the disk. We investigate the properties of the NDAF with this magnetic torque. For a rapid spinning BH, the magnetic torque transfers enormous rotational energy from BH into the inner disk. There are two consequences: (i) the luminosity of neutrino annihilation is greatly augmented; (ii) the disk becomes thermally and viscously unstable in the inner region, and behaves S-Shape of the surface density versus accretion rate. It turns out that magnetically torqued NDAF can be invoked to interpret the variability of gamma-ray luminosity. In addition, we discuss the possibility of restarting the central engine to produce the X-ray flares with required energy.
@article{arxiv.0906.1635,
title = {Magnetically Torqued Neutrino-Dominated Accretion Flows for Gamma-ray Bursts},
author = {W. H. Lei and D. X. Wang and L. Zhang and Z. M. Gan and Y. C. Zou and Y. Xie},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0906.1635},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
26 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ