A Study of Accretion Discs and Jets Around Rotating Black Holes

Gopika, S. M. (2023) A Study of Accretion Discs and Jets Around Rotating Black Holes. Masters thesis, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata.

Text (MS dissertation of Gopika SM (18MS028),) Thesis_18MS028.pdf - Submitted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (2MB)

Abstract

The recent images published by the Event Horizon Telescope depict how important plasma flows are in detecting /imaging a black hole. A black hole cannot host a magnetic field, hence flows and radiation itself. The source of this magnetic field is the surrounding matter, and accretion brings these closer to the black hole. It is relevant in the current astrophysics community to study the accretion disk and related observable features, such as the jets of a rotating black hole. Innumerable studies have been done to understand the jet mechanism in black holes, and two major processes tried to explain the emergence of jets; Blandford - Znajek and Blandford - Payne. These are general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) and MHD processes, respectively, because of the sources of energy. It is an open question of which process is the stronger one and the parameters that control the dominance of one process over the other. The first half of this project discusses the basics of accretion physics and Blandford - Znajek and Blandford - Payne processes based on simpler model frameworks, based on more of a back-of-the-envelope calculation. Subsequently, through a detailed study of both processes, we explore the jet luminosities using the GRMHD simulation, HARM. This sort of study has far ending goals, such as understanding the models underlying the generation of the jets and other outflows around rotating black holes.

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