Flux eruption events drive angular momentum transport in magnetically arrested accretion flows

Understand

We evolve two high-resolution general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations of advection-dominated accretion flows around non-spinning black holes (BHs), each over a duration $\sim 3\times 10^5\,GM_{\rm BH}/c^3$.

• One model captures the evolution of a weakly magnetized (SANE) disk and the other a magnetically arrested disk (MAD).
• Magnetic flux eruptions in the MAD model push out gas from the disk and launch strong winds with outflow efficiencies at times reaching $10\%$ of the incoming accretion power.
• Despite the substantial power in these winds, average mass outflow rates remain small out to a radius $\sim100\,GM_{\rm BH}/c^2$, only reaching $\sim 60-80\%$ of the horizon accretion rate.