Local Stability of Strongly Magnetized Black Hole Tori [HEAP]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1412.4561


We investigate the local stability of strongly magnetized relativistic tori orbiting Kerr black holes, for the case of a purely toroidal magnetic field topology. Our approach encompasses both solving the full dispersion relation numerically and solving a simplified analytic treatment. Both approaches indicate that such tori are subject to an unstable non-axisymmetric magnetorotational mode, regardless of such background properties as the gas-to-magnetic pressure ratio and specific angular momentum distribution. We demonstrate that our modal analysis matches well with what is seen in global, three-dimensional, general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations.

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M. Wielgus, P. Fragile, Z. Wang, et. al.
Tue, 16 Dec 14
25/78

Comments: 9 pages, 11 figures, accepted in MNRAS