TEARING UP THE DISK: HOW BLACK HOLES ACCRETE

• Published in: Astrophysical journal. Letters Vol. 757; no. 2; pp. L24 - 5
• Main Authors: Nixon, Chris, King, Andrew, Price, Daniel, Frank, Juhan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.10.2012
• Subjects: ACCRETION DISKS; ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; BINARY STARS; BLACK HOLES; Black holes (astronomy); Breaking; GALAXY NUCLEI; GAS FLOW; MASS; Misalignment; OSCILLATIONS; PRECESSION; Quasi-Periodic Oscillations; ROTATION; Spinning; X RADIATION; X-ray stars

We show that in realistic cases of accretion in active galactic nuclei or stellar-mass X-ray binaries, the Lense-Thirring effect breaks the central regions of tilted accretion disks around spinning black holes into a set of distinct planes with only tenuous flows connecting them. If the original mis...