Static and dynamic aspects of transonicity in Bondi accretion

Abstract

Transonicity in a spherically symmetric accreting system has been considered in both the stationary and the dynamic regimes. The stationary flow, set up as a dynamical system, has been shown to be greatly unstable to even the minutest possible deviation in the boundary condition for transonicity. With the help of a simple analytical model, and some numerical modelling, it has then been argued that the flow indeed becomes transonic and stable, when the evolution of the flow is followed through time. The time-dependent approach also shows that there is a remarkable closeness between an equation of motion for a perturbation in the flow, and the metric of an analog acoustic black hole.