Relativistic Outflows from Advection-Dominated Accretion Disks around Black Holes

Abstract

The Newtonian ADAF model has been generalized recently to obtain the ADIOS model that includes outflows of energy and angular momentum. The utilization of a Newtonian gravitational potential limits the ability of the ADIOS model to describe the inner region of the disk, where any relativistic outflows are likely to originate. In this paper we modify the ADIOS scenario to incorporate a pseudo-Newtonian potential, which approximates the effects of general relativity. The analysis yields a unique, self-similar solution for the structure of the coupled disk/wind system. Interesting features of the new solution include the relativistic character of the outflow in the vicinity of the radius of marginal stability, which may help to explain the formation of relativistic jets in active galaxies. The unique density variation obtained agrees with that implied by the dependence of the X-ray hard time lags on the Fourier frequency for a number of accreting galactic black hole candidates.