Related papers: The Magnetoviscous-thermal Instability
(abridged) Uninhibited radiative cooling in clusters of galaxies would lead to excessive mass accretion rates contrary to observations. One of the key proposals to offset radiative energy losses is thermal conduction from outer, hotter…
The standard thin disk model predicts that when the accretion rate is over a small fraction of the Eddington rate, which corresponds to $L \ga 0.06 L_{Edd}$, the inner region of the disk is radiation-pressure-dominated and thermally…
We present a comprehensive analysis of four near-Eddington black hole accretion models computed by solving the GRMHD equations with full radiation transport. This study focuses on the dynamical effects of magnetic field topology and black…
In a hot, dilute, magnetized accretion flow, the electron mean-free path can be much greater than the Larmor radius, thus thermal conduction is anisotropic and along magnetic field lines. In this case, if the temperature decreases outward,…
Fast and slow magnetosonic shock formation is presented for stationary and axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) accretion flows onto a black hole. The shocked black hole accretion solution must pass through magnetosonic points at some…
Cooling flows in galaxy clusters and isolated elliptical galaxies are a source of mass for fueling accretion onto a central supermassive black hole. We calculate the dynamics of accreting matter in the combined gravitational potential of a…
We study the magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability in relativistic collisionless plasma, as an astrophysical process for nonthermal particle acceleration. We consider dense plasma on top of a highly magnetized cavity with sheared magnetic…
A long-standing puzzle in the study of black-hole accretion concerns the presence or not of thermal instability. Classical theory predicts the encircling accretion disk is unstable, as do some self-consistent MHD simulations of the flow.…
The centre of our Milky Way harbours the closest candidate for a supermassive black hole. The source is thought to be powered by radiatively inefficient accretion of gas from its environment. This form of accretion is a standard mode of…
We explore the global structure of the accretion flow around a Schwarzschild black hole where the accretion disc is threaded by toroidal magnetic fields. The accretion flow is optically thin and advection dominated. Synchrotron radiation is…
We study the superradiant instability in scalar-tensor theories of gravitation, where matter outside a black hole provides an effective mass to the scalar degree of freedom of the gravitational sector. We discuss this effect for arbitrarily…
We examine 1D two-temperature accretion flows around a supermassive black hole, adopting the specific angular momentum \lambda, the total specific energy \epsilon and the input accretion rate \dot M_{input} = 4.0x10^{-6} solar mass/yr…
In dilute astrophysical plasmas, the collisional mean free path of a particle can exceed its Larmor radius. Under these conditions, the thermal conductivity and viscosity of the plasma can be dramatically altered. This alteration allows…
I review accretion and outflow in active galactic nuclei. Accretion appears to occur in a series of very small--scale, chaotic events, whose gas flows have no correlation with the large--scale structure of the galaxy or with each other. The…
We revisit theoretical and observational constraints on geometrically-thin disk accretion in Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). We show that the combined effects of mass outflows and electron energization in the hot part of the accretion flow can…
Numerical simulations of hot accretion flows have shown that the mass accretion rate decreases with decreasing radius. Two models have been proposed to explain this result. In the adiabatic inflow-outflow solution (ADIOS), it is thought to…
In this paper I propose that the inner part of a black hole accretion inflow ($< 100 r_{g}$) may enter a magnetically-dominated, magnetosphere-like phase in which the strong, well-ordered fields play a more important role than weak,…
Astrophysical accretion is arguably the most prevalent physical process in the Universe; it occurs during the birth and death of individual stars and plays a pivotal role in the evolution of entire galaxies. Accretion onto a black hole, in…
As the luminosity of an accreting black hole drops to a few percent of Eddington, the spectrum switches from the familiar soft state to a hard state that is well-described by a distended and tenuous advection-dominated accretion flow…
Magnetic fields grown by instabilities driven by differential rotation are believed to be essential to accretion onto black holes. These instabilities saturate in a turbulent state; therefore, the spatial and temporal variability in the…