The jets and disc of SS 433 at super-Eddington luminosities

• Published in: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2009-10, Vol.398 (4), p.1668-1677
• Main Authors: Okuda, T., Lipunova, G. V., Molteni, D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: accretion; accretion discs; Accretion disks; accretion, accretion discs; Astrophysics; black hole physics; Black holes; Fluid mechanics; hydrodynamics; Luminosity; radiation mechanisms: thermal; Stars & galaxies; X-rays: individual: SS 433
• ISSN: 0035-8711; 1365-2966
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15169.x

We examine the jets and the disc of SS 433 at super-Eddington luminosities with by time-dependent two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamical calculations, assuming an α-model for the viscosity. One-dimensional supercritical accretion disc models with mass loss or advection are used as the initial configurations of the disc. As a result, from the initial advective disc models with α= 0.001 and 0.1, we obtain total luminosities ∼2.5 × 1040 and 2.0 × 1040 erg s−1. The total mass-outflow rates are ∼4 × 10−5 and 10−4 M⊙ yr−1, and the rates of the relativistic axial outflows in a small half opening angle of ∼1° are about 10−6 M⊙ yr−1: the values are generally consistent with the corresponding observed rates of the wind and the jets, respectively. From the initial models with mass loss but without advection, we obtain total mass-outflow and axial outflow rates smaller than or comparable to the observed rates of the wind and the jets, respectively, depending on α. In the advective disc model with α= 0.1, the initially radiation-pressure-dominant, optically thick disc evolves to a gas-pressure-dominated, optically thin state in the inner region of the disc, and the inner disc is unstable. Consequently, we find remarkable modulations of the disc luminosity and the accretion rate through the inner edge. These modulations manifest themselves as recurrent hot blobs with high temperatures and low densities at the disc plane, which develop outwards and upwards and produce quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) of the total luminosity with an amplitude of a factor of ∼2 and quasi-periods of ∼10–25 s. This may explain the massive jet ejection and the QPO phenomena observed in SS 433.