2010/04/19 by Pedro J. Montero, José A. Font, Jose A. Font +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #astro-ph.HE #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.104.191101
published as Phys.Rev.Lett.104:191101,2010 · To appear on Phys.Rev.Lett
arxiv created 2010/04/19 · openalex publication_date 2010/05/10 · arxiv updated 2010/05/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Results from the first fully general relativistic numerical simulations in axisymmetry of a system formed by a black hole surrounded by a self-gravitating torus in equilibrium are presented, aiming to assess the influence of the torus self-gravity on the onset of the runaway instability. We consider several models with varying torus-to-black-hole mass ratio and angular momentum distribution orbiting in equilibrium around a nonrotating black hole. The tori are perturbed to induce the mass transfer towards the black hole. Our numerical simulations show that all models exhibit a persistent phase of axisymmetric oscillations around their equilibria for several dynamical time scales without the appearance of the runaway instability, indicating that the self-gravity of the torus does not play a critical role favoring the onset of the instability, at least during the first few dynamical time scales.