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Home List of Titles Three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of radiation-driven warped accretion discs
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/19932
- Three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of radiation-driven warped accretion discs
- Foulkes, Stephen B.; Haswell, Carole A.; Murray, James R.
- We present three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics calculations of warped accretion discs in X-ray binary systems. Geometrically thin, optically thick accretion discs are illuminated by a central radiation source. This illumination exerts a non-axisymmetric radiation pressure on the surface of the disc, resulting in a torque that acts on the disc to induce a twist or warp. Initially planar discs are unstable to warping driven by the radiation torque and, in general, the warps also precess in a retrograde direction relative to the orbital flow. We simulate a number of X-ray binary systems which have different mass ratios, using a number of different luminosities for each. Radiation-driven warping occurs for all systems simulated. For mass ratios q ~ 0.1 a moderate warp occurs in the inner disc while the outer disc remains in the orbital plane (cf. X 1916-053). For less extreme mass ratios, the entire disc tilts out of the orbital plane (cf. Her X-1). For discs that are tilted out of the orbital plane in which the outer edge material of the disc is precessing in a prograde direction, we obtain both positive and negative superhumps simultaneously in the dissipation light curve (cf. V603 Aql).
- Publication type
- Journal article
- Research centre
- Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies. Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 366, no. 4 (2006), p. 1399-1409
- Publication year
- Accretion; Accretion discs; Close binaries; Numerical methods; X-rays
- Blackwell Publishing
- Publisher URL
- Copyright © 2006 Royal Astronomical Society.
- Peer reviewed