Radiation Magnetohydrodynamic Simulation of sub-Eddington Circumbinary Disk in a 10:1 Massive Black Hole Binary

Abstract

We present a global three-dimensional radiation magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) simulation of a circumbinary disk (CBD) around a massive black hole binary (MBHB) with a total mass $2 \times 10^7\,M_{\odot}$ and mass ratio $0.1$, separated by $100\, GM_{\rm tot}/c^2$. The inclusion of radiation makes the disk thinner, denser, less eccentric at the inner edge, and more filamentary when compared to an otherwise identical locally isothermal MHD disk. The RMHD disk has accretion rate $\sim 0.23\,\dot{M}_{\mathrm{Edd}}$ and produces thermal emission peaking in the near-UV/optical with a luminosity of $\sim 1\, \% L_{\rm {Edd }}$. Compared with an equal-mass binary with the same total mass, the thermal emission of the CBD around the unequal-mass binary is several orders of magnitude brighter and much more variable at far-UV/soft X-rays frequencies. Similarly, we find that the light curve associated with the $0.1$ mass ratio binary exhibits dominant periodicity corresponding to 2 binary orbits, compared to the equal-mass binary that shows periodicity at 2.5-5 binary orbits. Our results highlight the importance of radiation for the structure and observational properties of MBHB circumbinary disks and have implications for detecting electromagnetic counterparts to LISA gravitational wave precursors and for the heavier binaries targeted by the Pulsar Timing Arrays.