Hot Accretion Flows Around Black Holes

Luminous quasars and near-Eddington X-ray binaries are explained well
by a standard model of black hole accretion called the thin accretion
disk. At lower luminosities, a different model in which the accreting
gas is much hotter provides a better explanation of observations. Some
features of this latter model are rather extreme, notably the
assumption of a two-temperature plasma with proton temperature
approaching 10^12 K near the black hole. Event Horizon Telescope
observations of two low-luminosity black holes, M87* and Sagittarius
A*, have validated the most problematic features of the hot accretion
flow model, increasing our confidence in the model. Many
low-luminosity black holes have relativistic jets. Computer
simulations reveal that such jets form easily in hot accretion flows,
provided the plasma is threaded by a strong magnetic field and the
black hole spins rapidly. The talk will review these and related
features of hot accretion flows.

Видео Hot Accretion Flows Around Black Holes канала CfA Colloquium