Steady state shocks in accretion disks around a Kerr black hole

Abstract

Results of numerical simulations of shock solutions in a geometrical thin accretion disk around a Kerr black hole (BH) are presented. Using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) technique, the influence of the central object is included by means of an effective potential, We first present the theory of standing shock formation in accretion disks around a Kerr black hole, and show that the results of our numerical simulation agree very well with the theoretical results. We find that the shocks in an inviscid flow are very stable. We also remove the ambiguity prevalent regarding the location and stability of shocks in adiabatic flows. Finally we sketch some of the astrophysical consequences of our findings in relation to accretion disks in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and Quasars.