The Event Horizon Telescope has recently taken the first direct images of supermassive objects in the center of the Milky Way, SgrA*, and in the center of galaxy M87, M87*.
Physical interpretation of these images relies on models of plasma behavior in strong gravitational field of a black hole. Modeling gas flows around black holes using three-dimensional general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (3DGRMHD) codes has become a standard. However, the standard GRMHD simulations are suitable to model only these systems where light generated in the accretion processes does’t affect the thermodynamics of the matter.
This seriously limits the application of these simulations to strongly sub-luminous sources such as the SgrA* in a quiescent state. To correctly model more luminous objects, e.g., M87* and other systems, we carry our radiative-GRMHD simulations where radiation forces and radiative cooling play a role.
The project’s primary goal is to run a small suite of radiative GRMHD simulations to assess the role of radiation in the models dynamics and their appearance to external observers. Our simulations are computationally expensive, hence they require HPC. The project’s outcome is a set of models ready for comparison with EHT and other observations of black holes and extraction of their parameters.
Radboud University, Netherlands.