Warped and eccentric discs around black holes
Abstract
Accretion discs around black holes in X-ray binary stars are warped if the spin axis of the black hole is not perpendicular to the binary orbital plane. They can also become eccentric through an instability involving a resonance with the binary orbit. Depending on the thickness of the disc and the efficiency of dissipative processes, these global deformations may be able to propagate into the innermost part of the disc in the form of stationary bending or density waves. We describe the solutions in the linear regime and discuss the conditions under which a warp or eccentricity is likely to produce significant activity in the inner region, which may include the excitation of quasi-periodic oscillations.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0810.0119,
title = {Warped and eccentric discs around black holes},
author = {Gordon I. Ogilvie and Barbara T. Ferreira},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.0119},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
6 pages, 3 figures; accepted for inclusion in the proceedings of "Cool Discs, Hot Flows: The Varying Faces of Accreting Compact Objects," ed. M. Axelsson (New York: AIP)