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Aligning spinning black holes and accretion discs
- Publication Year :
- 2005
-
Abstract
- We consider the alignment torque between a spinning black hole and an accretion disc whose angular momenta are misaligned. This situation must hold initially in almost all gas accretion events on to supermassive black holes, and may occur in binaries where the black hole receives a natal supernova kick. We show that the torque always acts to align the hole's spin with the total angular momentum without changing its magnitude. The torque acts dissipatively on the disc, reducing its angular momentum, and aligning it with the hole if and only if the angle theta between the angular momenta J_d of the disc and J_h of the hole satisfies the inequality cos theta > -J_d / 2 J_h. If this condition fails, which requires both theta > pi/2 and J_d < 2 J_h, the disc counteraligns.<br />MNRAS, in press
- Subjects :
- Physics
Angular momentum
Supermassive black hole
Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics (astro-ph)
FOS: Physical sciences
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Accretion (astrophysics)
Black hole
Supernova
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Space and Planetary Science
Total angular momentum quantum number
Torque
Condensed Matter::Strongly Correlated Electrons
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Spinning
Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....a03bf51e269bd7f89f88f2eec6bc4ebb