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Three-Dimensional Simulations of Dynamics of Accretion Flows Irradiated by a Quasar

[Image] [Image] [Image] [Image]

Ryuichi Kurosawa & Daniel Proga, 2008, ApJ,  submitted


Abstract

We study the axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric, time-dependent hydrodynamics of gas that is under the influence of the gravity of a super massive  black hole (SMBH) and the radiation force produced by a radiatively efficient  flow accreting  onto the SMBH. This work is a direct extension of the previous
axisymmetric models of AGN feedback studied by Proga to a fully 3-D model. We have considered two cases: (1) the formation of an outflow from the accretion of the ambient gas without rotation and (2) that with rotation. The main goals of this study are: (1) to examine if there is a significant difference between the models with identical initial and boundary conditions but in different dimensionality (2-D and 3-D), in particular, if the radiation driven outflows that were found to be stable in 2-D remain stable in 3-D simulations, and (2) to understand the gas dynamics in AGN. Our 3-D simulations of a non-rotating gas show small yet noticeable non-axisymmetric small-scale features inside the outflow.  But the outflow as the whole and the inflow do not seem to suffer from any large-scale instability. In the rotating case, the non-axisymmetric features are very prominent, especially in the outflow which consists of many cold dense clouds entrained in a smoother hot component. The 3-D outflow is non-axisymmetric due to the shear and thermal instabilities. In both 2-D and 3-D simulations, gas rotation causes several very similar effects. For example, rotation increases the outflow thermal energy flux, but reduces the outflow mass and kinetic energy fluxes and the outflow collimation. Moreover, rotation leads to time variability and fragmentation of the outflow in the radial and latitudinal directions.  However, the time variability in the mass and energy fluxes is reduced in the 3-D case because of the outflow fragmentation in the azimuthal direction. The virial mass estimated from the kinematics of the cold clouds found in our 3-D simulations of rotating gas underestimates the actual mass used in the simulations by about 40%.  The opening angles (~30 deg.) of the bi-conic outflows found in the models with rotating gas are very similar to that of the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 (~33 deg.). Although our models show that a hot outflow decelerating at large radii, they do not show what has been observed in some Seyfert galaxies, i.e., strong deceleration of the cold clouds. Instead the simulated clouds reach a constant velocity near the outer boundary, and show only a hint of deceleration. We suspect that the lack of clearly decelerating cold clouds is due to the relatively small simulation box size and the relatively low gas density used in our models.

Preprint

  • Will be available here after the paper is accepted.

Movies  

Click on the images to see movies.

Parameters for the central black hole
M_BH= 10^8 Msun, Mdot=1.6Msun/yr,  L_BH=2x10^12Lsun


-- Model Rotation? 2D/3D Movies
[Image] I no 2 Click here
[Image] II yes 2 Click here
[Image] III no 3 Click here
[Image] IV yes 3 Click here