Rocking shadows in broken circumbinary discs [EPA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2002.02983


We use three dimensional simulations with coupled hydrodynamics and Monte Carlo radiative transfer to show that shadows cast by the inner disc in broken circumbinary discs move within a confined range of position angles on the outer disc. Over time, shadows appear to rock back and forth in azimuth as the inner disc precesses. The effect occurs because the inner disc precesses around a vector that is not the angular momentum vector of the outer disc. We relate our findings to recent observations of shadows in discs.

Read this paper on arXiv…

R. Nealon, D. Price and C. Pinte
Tue, 11 Feb 20
67/81

Comments: 5 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters. Movie of figure 1 available at this https URL