Accretion-induced quasinormal mode excitation of a Schwarzschild black hole
By combining the numerical solution of the nonlinear hydrodynamics equations with the solution of the linear inhomogeneous Zerilli-Moncrief and Regge-Wheeler equations we investigate the properties of the gravitational radiation emitted during the axisymmetric accretion of matter onto a Schwarzschild black hole. The matter models considered include quadrupolar dust shells and thick accretion disks, permitting us to simulate situations which may be encountered at the end stages of stellar gravitational collapse or binary neutron star merger. We focus on the interference pattern appearing in the energy spectra of the emitted gravitational waves and on the amount of excitation of the quasi-nor…
Dynamics of oscillating relativistic tori around Kerr black holes
We present a comprehensive numerical study of the dynamics of relativistic axisymmetric accretion tori with a power-law distribution of specific angular momentum orbiting in the background spacetime of a Kerr black hole. By combining general relativistic hydrodynamics simulations with a linear perturbative approach we investigate the main dynamical properties of these objects over a large parameter space. The astrophysical implications of our results extend and improve two interesting results that have been recently reported in the literature. Firstly, the induced quasi-periodic variation of the mass quadrupole moment makes relativistic tori of nuclear matter densities, as those formed duri…
Quasi-periodic accretion and gravitational waves from oscillating "toroidal neutron stars" around a Schwarzschild black hole
We present general relativistic hydrodynamics simulations of constant specific angular momentum tori orbiting a Schwarzschild black hole. These tori are expected to form as a result of stellar gravitational collapse, binary neutron star merger or disruption, can reach very high rest-mass densities and behave effectively as neutron stars but with a toroidal topology (i.e. ``toroidal neutron stars''). Our attention is here focussed on the dynamical response of these objects to axisymmetric perturbations. We show that, upon the introduction of perturbations, these systems either become unstable to the runaway instability or exhibit a regular oscillatory behaviour resulting in a quasi-periodic …
Dynamics of magnetized relativistic tori oscillating around black holes
We present a numerical study of the dynamics of magnetized, relativistic, non-self-gravitating, axisymmetric tori orbiting in the background spacetimes of Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes. The initial models have a constant specific angular momentum and are built with a non-zero toroidal magnetic field component, for which equilibrium configurations have recently been obtained. In this work we extend our previous investigations which dealt with purely hydrodynamical thick discs, and study the dynamics of magnetized tori subject to perturbations which, for the values of the magnetic field strength considered here, trigger quasi-periodic oscillations lasting for tens of orbital periods. Ove…
Dynamics of oscillating magnetized relativistic tori around a Schwarzschild black hole
We present a comprehensive numerical study of the dynamics of magnetized relativistic axisymmetric tori orbiting in the background spacetime of a Schwarzschild black hole. The tori are modeled as having a purely toroidal magnetic field and a constant distribution of the specific angular momentum. Following previous investigations of tori in a purely hydrodynamical context, the dynamics of these objects has been studied upon the introduction of a perturbation which, for the values of the magnetic field considered here, triggers quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) lasting tens of orbital periods. As in the hydrodynamical case, the spectral distribution of the eigenfrequencies shows the presenc…
Numerical 3+1 general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics: a local characteristic approach
We present a general procedure to solve numerically the general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) equations within the framework of the 3+1 formalism. The work reported here extends our previous investigation in general relativistic hydrodynamics (Banyuls et al. 1997) where magnetic fields were not considered. The GRMHD equations are written in conservative form to exploit their hyperbolic character in the solution procedure. All theoretical ingredients necessary to build up high-resolution shock-capturing schemes based on the solution of local Riemann problems (i.e. Godunov-type schemes) are described. In particular, we use a renormalized set of regular eigenvectors of the flux Jac…
Gravitational waves from oscillating accretion tori: Comparison between different approaches
Quasi-periodic oscillations of high density thick accretion disks orbiting a Schwarzschild black hole have been recently addressed as interesting sources of gravitational waves. The aim of this paper is to compare the gravitational waveforms emitted from these sources when computed using (variations of) the standard quadrupole formula and gauge-invariant metric perturbation theory. To this goal we evolve representative disk models using an existing general relativistic hydrodynamics code which has been previously employed in investigations of such astrophysical systems. Two are the main results of this work: First, for stable and marginally stable disks, no excitation of the black hole quas…
Dynamics of thick discs around Schwarzschild-de Sitter black holes
We consider the effects of a cosmological constant on the dynamics of constant angular momentum discs orbiting Schwarzschild-de Sitter black holes. The motivation behind this study is to investigate whether the presence of a radial force contrasting the black hole's gravitational attraction can influence the occurrence of the runaway instability, a robust feature of the dynamics of constant angular momentum tori in Schwarzschild and Kerr spacetimes. In addition to the inner cusp near the black hole horizon through which matter can accrete onto the black hole, in fact, a positive cosmological constant introduces also an outer cusp through which matter can leave the torus without accreting on…