Black Hole Accretion Disks and Jets: Connecting Simulations and Theory

Abstract

In recent years, general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations have produced more realistic models for black hole disks and jets. However the complexity of the simulations has created a disconnect between simulations and theory: it is often unclear whether the simulated physics is correctly described by standard, semi-analytic disk and jet models. In this thesis, we describe new GRMHD simulations of black hole disks and jets. We compare the simulations to standard disk and jet models. We show that GRMHD thin disks are well described by the Novikov-Thorne model, and GRMHD jets are well described by the Blandford-Znajek model. Then, guided by the simulations, we develop two extensions of the standard thin disk model: a radially varying \(\alpha(r)\) viscosity prescription and an analytical disk solution with nonzero stress at the innermost stable circular orbit.