Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: We present three-dimensional general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of a precessing supermassive black hole binary with mass ratio q=1/7, embedded in a circumbinary disk. We investigate how dynamics within the binary cavity launch and shape a relativistic jet to thousands of gravitational radii. The primary black hole dominates both accretion and jet power, while the smaller black hole repeatedly crosses and shocks the inner accretion flow. These passages of the secondary drive magnetized gas alternately into the upper and lower jet funnels, producing disturbances that propagate outward as quasi-periodic outflows. Although the inner flow is perturbed twice per orbit, each jet lobe shows one dominant outflow per orbit. On longer timescales, the jet precesses, reverses its magnetic handedness, and undergoes two weak phases. The first results from a reorientation of the primary spin and is followed, after the jet recovers, by a reversal in the circulation of the projected magnetic field. The second weak phase occurs as the secondary's orbit becomes nearly coplanar with the circumbinary disk, reducing the gas and magnetic flux reaching the primary. Together, these results connect cavity dynamics to large-scale jet variability and predict a set of correlated jet signatures whose relative timing and causal ordering may provide stronger evidence for a small-mass-ratio supermassive black hole binary than any one feature alone.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1011805105, Explorations of Extreme and Eccentric Binary Black Hole Mergers, Frameworks: E=mc2 - Enabling Multimessenger astrophysics through Community-driven Cyberinfrastructure, Collaborative Research: Deploying Curvilinear Coordinate and Multipatch Methods on Neutron Star Mergers, G2532392716, WoU-MMA: Collaborative Research: Supermassive Binary Black Hole Mergers: Accretion Dynamics and Electromagnetic Output, Collaborative Research: Curvilinear and Multipatch Methods for General Relativistic Astrophysics in the Gravitational Wave Era, Collaborative Research: Accretion Dynamics of Black Hole Mergers, G3982862247, MRI: Acquisition of an Advanced Computer Cluster for Computational Relativity and Gravitation, Black Hole Probes of Beyond-Standard Model Particles and Fields, MRI: Acquisition of an Advanced Computing Cluster for General Relativistic Astrophysics, Full Numerical Studies of Extreme and Eccentric Binary Black Hole Mergers, Collaborative Research: Breaking Barriers in Multi-messenger Astrophysics: The RITTU Partnership, MRI: Acquisition of a Computing Cluster for Gravitational-Wave and Multimessenger Astrophysics in the Era of LIGO Detections, G8210734700, MRI: Acquisition of a Computing System for Large Simulation Data Sets in Multimessenger Astrophysics
OpenAlex ID: W7214052481