Study of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic accretion flow around black holes

Abstract

We present a novel approach to study the global structure of steady, axisymmetric, advective, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) accretion flow around black holes in full general relativity (GR). Considering ideal MHD conditions and relativistic equation of state (REoS), we solve the governing equations to obtain all possible smooth global accretion solutions. We examine the dynamical and thermodynamical properties of accreting matter in terms of the flow parameters, namely energy (${\cal E}$), angular momentum (${\cal L}$), and local magnetic fields. For a vertically integrated GRMHD flow, we observe that toroidal component (bφ) of the magnetic fields generally dominates over radial component (br) at the disc equatorial plane. This evidently suggests that toroidal magnetic field indeed plays important role in regulating the disc dynamics. We further notice that the disc remains mostly gas pressure (pgas) dominated (β = pgas/pmag > 1, pmag refers magnetic pressure) except at the near horizon region, where magnetic fields become indispensable (β ∼1). We observe that Maxwell stress is developed that eventually yields angular momentum transport inside the disc. Towards this, we calculate the viscosity parameter (α) that appears to be radially varying. In addition, we examine the underlying scaling relation between α and β, which clearly distinguishes two domains coexisted along the radial extent of the disc. Finally, we discuss the utility of the present formalism in the realm of GRMHD simulation studies. © 2022 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.