Spectral Predictions from Super-Eddington Accretion Simulations
Abstract
The study of super-Eddington accretion is essential to our understanding of the growth of super-massive black holes in the early universe, the accretion of tidally disrupted stars, and the nature of ultraluminous X-ray sources. Unfortunately, this mode of accretion is particularly difficult to model because of the multidimensionality of the flow, the importance magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, and the dominant dynamical role played by radiation forces. However, recent increases in computing power and advances in algorithms are facilitating major improvements in our ability to model radiation in numerical simulations of astrophysical plasmas. I will briefly describe our new radiation transfer modules and discuss our efforts to model super-Eddington accretion flows around stellar mass and supermassive black holes. I will focus on the predictions of the spectrum from these simulations generated using Monte Carlo radiation transfer methods to post process the numerical simulations.
- Publication:
-
42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- July 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018cosp...42E.773D