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# X-ray colour maps of the cores of galaxy clusters

## 1 Introduction

Clusters of galaxies are among the largest dynamical objects in the universe. They contain large quantities of virilised gas (the intracluster medium, or ICM) at temperatures of the order of $`10^7`$$`10^8`$ K, heated by their initial gravitational collapse. Due to this gas they are powerful emitters of X-rays from bremsstrahlung and line emission. The gas masses of rich clusters exceed $`10^{14}M_{}`$, and they can emit over $`10^{45}\text{ erg s}^1`$ in X-rays.

The radiative cooling time, $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}`$, is shortest in the densest regions, at the centre of a cluster, and is often found to be less than the plausible age of the cluster, i.e. the time since its last major interaction, which is a significant fraction of the Hubble time. As the gas cools, its temperature decreases, but its density must rise to maintain hydrostatic equilibrium. This is achieved by the gas above flowing in. This is known as a *cooling flow* (See Fabian 1994 for a review).

Observations have shown that cooling flows are *inhomogeneous*. The mass drops out of the flow into a form which does not emit X-rays. The exact destination and final form of this gas has not been determined, but magnetic fields are probably important in determining, and constraining, the structure of cooled gas.

The rate of the mass of gas cooling out at a certain radius is known as the mass deposition rate, $`\dot{M}(r)`$. This value can total from 10–1000 $`M_{}\text{ yr}^1`$. The mass deposition rate can be estimated by assuming that all the luminosity within the cooling radius, where the cooling time is less than the age of the cluster, is due to the cooling gas radiation, plus the $`P\mathrm{d}V`$ work done on the gas as it enters that radius. The relationship between the mass deposition rate and radius is found to be roughly linear, as the surface brightness profiles are not as centrally peaked as would be expected for a homogeneous cooling flow.

Allen & Fabian (1997) undertook a study of the spatial distributions of cooling gas and intrinsic X-ray absorbing material in a sample of nearby clusters, using X-ray colour profiles, formed from the ratio of flux in selected bands, using data from the *ROSAT* Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC). They found that the profiles indicated that there were significant central concentrations of cooling gas in their cooling flow clusters, becoming approximately isothermal at larger radii. Their profiles also showed large levels of X-ray absorption in the cluster cores, increasing with decreasing radius.

The bands they examined are listed in Table 1, which they combined to form two X-ray colour ratios, $`B/D`$ and $`C/D`$. To analyse the observations, they calculated theoretical curves for the colours as functions of temperature and metallicity, with a uniform screen to model the absorbing column density. They modelled both colours with isothermal and cooling gas models. In Section 4 we reevaluate these functions using more recent plasma models.

To demonstrate the presence of distributed cooling gas in the central regions of cooling flow clusters, they used the $`C/D`$ profile, and the $`B/D`$ ratio to demonstrate the presence of intrinsic X-ray absorbing gas. They found the absorbing material only partially covers the X-ray emitting region.

In this paper, we extend the analysis of Allen & Fabian (1997). Instead of making a simple radial profile of each cluster, we have developed a technique to take account of the two-dimensional structure of the image. Simple binning works in areas of high flux, where the errors created in forming ratios of counts are small. In low flux regions, the number of pixels required to bin destroys most of the spatial information in the image. Our method attempts to make statistically useful X-ray colours, whilst preserving spatial resolution.

## 2 Observations and colour map analysis

We analysed archival *ROSAT* PSPC data for a sample of 33 clusters. The clusters we examined are shown in Table 2. The sample was mainly chosen to include known strong cooling flow clusters (from Peres et al. 1998), with a few non-cooling-flow clusters for comparison.

We used the bands of Allen & Fabian (1997) in our analysis. These bands are optimised for the study of cooling gas. This precluded the use of the extended object analysis package of Snowden & Kuntz (1998), although we made use of some modified versions of a few of their routines.

The full analysis procedure for each cluster is as follows.

1. We removed time periods from the observation where the Master Veto count rate averaged over $`30`$ s was greater than 220 counts $`\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Snowden et al. 1994).
2. A modified version of Snowden’s cast\_data routine was used to create $`512\times 512`$ pixel images of the cluster, at a pixel size of approximately $`15\times 15\text{ arcsec}^2`$. We created images of the cluster in the $`B`$, $`C`$ and $`D`$ bands from Table 1.
3. We corrected the $`B`$, $`C`$ and $`D`$ band images for background counts (Section 2.2).
4. An *adaptively-smoothed* image (Section 2.1) was made of the central region of the cluster, in the high energy $`D`$ band. We created an image of size $`64\times 64`$, or occasionally $`128\times 128`$ pixels, depending on the extent of the cluster.
5. We created linear contours in the adaptively-smoothed image, by simply taking the difference between the maximum and minimum count rates, and dividing by the number of contours.
6. The counts for those pixels between each two neighbouring contours was added, in each of the background corrected $`B`$, $`C`$ and $`D`$ images.
7. We used the count totals to generate average $`B/D`$ and $`C/D`$ colours for each contour. The error on each result is:

$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _r}{r}}\right)^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{_{\mathrm{pixels}}\left(N_i^X+C_i^X\right)}{\left[_{\mathrm{pixels}}\left(N_i^XC_i^X\right)\right]^2}}+`$ (1)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{_{\mathrm{pixels}}\left(N_i^Y+C_i^Y\right)}{\left[_{\mathrm{pixels}}\left(N_i^YC_i^Y\right)\right]^2}},`$
where $`r`$ is the $`X/Y`$ average ratio, and $`\sigma _r`$ is the error on the ratio. $`N_i^X`$ is the uncorrected number of photons in pixel $`i`$ in band $`X`$, and $`C_i^X`$ is the background correction for pixel $`i`$ in band $`X`$. This expression does not take account of systematic background uncertainties. We ignored pixels that were suspected to contain point sources (Section 2.2) outside the core.
8. A Monte Carlo procedure was used to change the contour levels in the adaptively-smoothed image to minimize the total error squared in the contours for both colours, or the value

$$x=\underset{\mathrm{contours}}{}\left\{\left[\sigma _{(B/D)_i}\right]^2+\left[\sigma _{(C/D)_i}\right]^2\right\}.$$
(2)
The result of moving the contour levels to minimize $`x`$ creates contour levels which contain similar numbers of counts and signal to noise ratios. The procedure produces colour ratios with roughly equal fractional uncertainties for each contour.

We used six contours to process the cluster images. This was a good compromise between showing detail and keeping statistical errors low. The results were stable to small changes in the number of contours.

### 2.1 Adaptive smoothing

Adaptive smoothing is a technique to smooth an image and retain significant small-scale structure (Ebeling, White & Rangarajan 2000). Smoothing is required because it is often the case, especially in X-ray data, that there are few photons per pixel. However, convolving an image with a Gaussian kernel leads to broadening of features and loss of small-scale structure. An algorithm is required which retains information on all scales.

An adaptive kernel smoothing (AKS) algorithm applies a kernel with a varying size to an image. A part of the image with few counts is smoothed with a large kernel, whilst a part with many counts is smoothed with a small kernel. The algorithm decides what is the ‘natural’ smoothing scale for a part of an image. AKS algorithms differ on how they choose an appropriate kernel size. We used the asmooth algorithm of Ebeling, White & Rangarajan (2000) to adaptively smooth our cluster images. asmooth is unusual in that it uses the local signal-to-noise ratio to adjust the size of the kernel. The minimum signal-to-noise ratio of the part of the image smoothed by the kernel is a parameter to the algorithm. A level of 6-$`\sigma `$ seemed to produce the best results; it appeared not to generate false detail from spurious pixels. We used a Gaussian rather than top-hat adaptive kernel.

Other methods for revealing structure in data include wavelet analysis (Starck & Pierre 1998). Different methods have other advantages, but the asmooth algorithm is particularly simple and quick to perform.

### 2.2 Background removal

The raw data contains counts not from the observed source. These background counts, sources of which are listed below, must be removed.

1. The X-ray background, which comes through the aperture of the telescope, and is observed with the same vignetting response of the telescope as the object. This includes solar and extragalactic background emission.
2. The particle background (Plucinsky et al. 1993) is diffuse and is caused by high energy cosmic rays. The flux of the particle background is approximately constant across the detector.

These components vary in strength with X-ray energy, so they must be removed to make X-ray colours.

To estimate the background we took the average count from the 30–35 arcmin region, beyond the ‘ribs’ in the field of the PSPC. From this count we subtracted an estimate of the particle background from Plucinsky et al. (1993), of $`4\times 10^6`$ counts $`\text{pixel}^1`$ $`\text{s}^1`$ $`\text{arcmin}^2`$ $`\text{keV}^1`$. We corrected the result for vignetting. The corrected count and the particle background was removed from all pixels.

Accounting for the total background reduces the scatter of the observed data points. It also hardens the emission from the outermost parts of clusters which emit few photons.

Three clusters, A2142, A1795 and A2029, contained obvious point sources in their fields outside the cluster core. We removed the point sources using a mask which excluded the affected region around them. Those pixels inside the mask were not included in the sum of counts inside a contour.

## 3 Results

We created adaptively-smoothed images of the sample of clusters in the $`B`$, $`C`$ and $`D`$ bands, using an asmooth minimum significance of 6-$`\sigma `$. Fig. 1, 2 and 3 show the images for the Perseus, Virgo and A2199 clusters, respectively. *ROSAT* HRI images of the centres of the Perseus cluster, NGC 1275, and the Virgo cluster, M87, have been examined by Böhringer et al. (1993, 1995), respectively. They found the thermal plasma was displaced by the radio lobes of NGC 1275 at the centre of the Perseus cluster.

Fig. 4 and 5 are colour contour maps of the Perseus and Virgo clusters. The maps show the average X-ray colours between each of six contours. The scale below each map shows the value and statistical uncertainty of the colour of each contour. The extreme error bars on the softest and hardest points are not shown on the scales. Note that darker shades in these plots indicate softer emission. Table 3 shows the mean physical distance from the cluster centre of each contour in each cluster in pixels. It also identifies which clusters were examined using a $`64\times 64`$ pixel image or a $`128\times 128`$ image.

Fig. 6 shows a sample of six colour contour maps. Four of the clusters are non-cooling-flow clusters, showing interesting features. Two are cooling flow clusters, which make up most of our sample, and they reveal little substructure. The point source in A2142 is shown, but is not included in the contour statistics.

Fig. 7 and 8 show the average $`B/D`$ and $`C/D`$ colours for the contours of each of the sample of clusters. The clusters are listed in decreasing cooling flow flux order ($`\dot{M}/z^2`$, where $`\dot{M}`$ is the mass deposition rate, and $`z`$ is the redshift of the cluster) using the PSPC $`\dot{M}`$ values obtained by Peres et al. (1998). However, some of the clusters have highly uncertain mass deposition rates, so the ordering is not definite.

Table 2 shows a significance measure of the change in colour from the outside to the inner region for each cluster. For a cluster with contours of colour $`X_i`$, it is calculated using

$$S(X)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{3/2}\sigma _X}\left[X_1\left(X_5+X_6\right)/2\right],$$
(3)
$`X_1`$ is the innermost colour value, $`X_5`$ and $`X_6`$ are the two outermost colours, $`\sigma _X`$ is the statistical uncertainty in each colour. The uncertainties are almost the same for each contour, due to our method of choosing contour levels (Section 2). $`\sqrt{3/2}`$ is a numerical factor to make $`S(X)`$ a measure of the number of 1-$`\sigma `$ errors. We take the mean outer two colours to decrease the chance of background contamination. The background is a large fraction of the total number of counts in the outer contour for several clusters, for example A3571, A2204, A3558 and A262.

Fig. 9 shows the variation of the significance of the $`C/D`$ colour, presumably due to the presence of cool gas, with the cooling flow flux, $`\dot{M}/z^2`$, for the sample of clusters. Fig. 10 shows the significance plotted against central cooling time, $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}`$. There is a clear anti-correlation between $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}`$ and the significance of a $`C/D`$ colour gradient. Clusters with $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}2`$ Gyr show colour gradients with $`S(C/D)>2`$. $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}`$ is a measure of the quality of data for a cooling flow. Cooling flow clusters with short cooling times have enough counts to make their central bins small in area.

Some of the results obtained are dependent on our choice of significance measure. If the cluster has a large soft core, as A3571, Hydra-A and A2204 seem to have in $`B/D`$, then using a measure based on $`X_3+X_4`$ instead of $`X_5+X_6`$ in equation (3) gives a much lower significance value. A significance based on $`X_3+X_4`$ would be less affected by background noise, but throws away much of the data. A more complex significance measure might be useful, but for those clusters where it might be important, noise is probably a more limiting factor.

## 4 Colour models

By comparing the $`B/D`$ and $`C/D`$ ratios with theoretical models, it is possible to estimate the effective temperature, metallicity and absorbing column density. We reevaluated the theoretical curves of Allen & Fabian (1997) using a more recent model of an isothermal gas; the xspec 10 mekal model based on the calculations of Mewe and Kaastra with Fe L calculations by Liedahl (Mewe, Gronenschild & van den Oord 1985; Liedahl, Osterheld & Goldstein 1995) with an absorbing phabs screen.

We iterated the calculation of the $`B/D`$ and $`C/D`$ colour ratios over the parameter space $`0N_H/(10^{20}\text{ atom cm}^2)20`$, $`0Z/Z_{}2`$, and $`1T/\text{keV}10`$, where $`N_H`$ is the column density of the absorbing screen, and $`Z`$ and $`T`$ are the metallicity and temperature of the cluster. Projections of the ratios for constant $`Z`$ or $`N_H`$ are shown in Fig. 11. The colours were calculated for an object of redshift of 0.01. We found that the choice of redshift was not significant, due to the low redshift nature of the clusters examined. The predictions of the model show some differences from those of Allen & Fabian (1997), particularly at low temperatures, where the colour ratios are higher than those predicted before.

We calculated, too, the colour ratios expected for a cooling flow model (Johnstone et al. 1992) with an absorbing screen (Fig. 12). We modelled a gas cooling to 0.001 keV over the same range of abundance, upper temperature and absorbing column density as the isothermal gas model.

Our first step was to fit the $`C/D`$ colour ratios for the contours of a cluster with a single component isothermal model. We assumed galactic absorption, $`N_{H,\mathrm{gal}}`$, for each cluster and a constant metallicity of $`Z_{\mathrm{clust}}=0.3Z_{}`$. By taking the average fitted temperature of the outer three contours we derived an isothermal temperature of each cluster, $`T_{\mathrm{iso}}`$. Table 4 shows the fitted isothermal temperature for each cluster, with the galactic absorption used. The galactic column densities listed were obtained using the ftools nh program (Dickey and Lockman 1990), except for A478, PKS 0745-191 and A3112, for which we used the values quoted in White (2000).

Temperature profiles calculated using an isothermal model, with fixed absorption and metallicities, are shown for a sample of four clusters in Fig. 13. The errors in the temperatures were propagated directly from the errors in the observed $`C/D`$ ratio only. Three of the clusters are known cooling flow clusters. Applying the isothermal model to each contour shows a temperature decrease from the outer regions of the clusters to their centres. For the non-cooling-flow cluster there is no evidence of this temperature change. This is generally the case for our sample of clusters. Those with strong cooling flows show a temperature decrease, except for those masked by a strong galactic column.

### 4.1 Fitting metallicity gradients

The cooling flow clusters show a temperature decrease from their outer regions to their centres, assuming a single-phase isothermal gas. White (2000) found that 90 per cent of his sample of 98 clusters were consistent with isothermality (after including cooling flow effects) at the 3-$`\sigma `$ level. We attempted to fit the contour colours with an isothermal gas with a varying metallicity. We minimized the function

$`\chi ^2(Z)`$ $`=`$ $`\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{[B/D]_{\mathrm{obs}}[B/D]_{\mathrm{iso}}(Z,T_{\mathrm{iso}},N_{H,\mathrm{gal}})}{\sigma _{[B/D]_{\mathrm{obs}}}}}\right\}^2`$ (4)
$`+`$ $`\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{[C/D]_{\mathrm{obs}}[C/D]_{\mathrm{iso}}(Z,T_{\mathrm{iso}},N_{H,\mathrm{gal}})}{\sigma _{[C/D]_{\mathrm{obs}}}}}\right\}^2`$
to find the optimum value of $`Z`$, where $`[B/D]_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ and $`[C/D]_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ are the observer contour colour values, $`\sigma _{[B/D]_{\mathrm{obs}}}`$ and $`\sigma _{[C/D]_{\mathrm{obs}}}`$ are their respective errors, and $`[B/D]_{\mathrm{iso}}`$ and $`[C/D]_{\mathrm{iso}}`$ are the predicted isothermal values as a function of $`Z`$.

This analysis showed that simply using an isothermal gas with a metallicity gradient was not a good fit to the observed data in the inner parts of the clusters. The fitted metallicity was $`0.9Z_{}`$ for the inner contour of the Virgo cluster data, but the $`\chi ^2`$ value was $`600`$. Most of the other strong cooling flows showed similar results.

### 4.2 Fitting cooling flow models

To fit our data it was clear that another component to the model was required. We added an extra cooling flow component, which was an obvious first candidate. If the number of counts observed in a particular band is denoted by $`X_{\mathrm{obs}}`$, an isothermal model predicts a count of $`X_{\mathrm{iso}}(Z,T,N_H)`$, a cooling flow model predicts $`X_{\mathrm{cf}}(Z,T,N_H)`$, where $`T`$ in this case denotes the upper cooling temperature, and the models are normalised by the values $`N_{\mathrm{iso}}`$ and $`N_{\mathrm{cf}}`$, then we can write

$`B_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ $`=`$ $`N_{\mathrm{iso}}B_{\mathrm{iso}}(Z,T,N_H)+N_{\mathrm{cf}}B_{\mathrm{cf}}(Z,T,N_H),`$ (5)
$`C_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ $`=`$ $`N_{\mathrm{iso}}C_{\mathrm{iso}}(Z,T,N_H)+N_{\mathrm{cf}}C_{\mathrm{cf}}(Z,T,N_H),\text{ and}`$ (6)
$`D_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ $`=`$ $`N_{\mathrm{iso}}D_{\mathrm{iso}}(Z,T,N_H)+N_{\mathrm{cf}}D_{\mathrm{cf}}(Z,T,N_H).`$ (7)
By solving the above equations we can find the cooling flow fraction in a particular band. In Band $`C`$ the cooling flow fraction is

$`f_C`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{N_{\mathrm{cf}}C_{\mathrm{cf}}}{N_{\mathrm{iso}}C_{\mathrm{iso}}+N_{\mathrm{cf}}C_{\mathrm{cf}}}}`$ (8)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{C_{\mathrm{cf}}(C_{\mathrm{iso}}\left[\frac{C}{D}\right]_{\mathrm{obs}}D_{\mathrm{iso}})}{\left[\frac{C}{D}\right]_{\mathrm{obs}}(D_{\mathrm{cf}}C_{\mathrm{iso}}C_{\mathrm{cf}}D_{\mathrm{iso}})}}.`$
Note that the model predictions, $`X_{\mathrm{iso}}`$ and $`X_{\mathrm{cf}}`$ are functions of metallicity, absorbing column density and temperature. We made the assumption of constant metallicity, isothermal temperature (or upper cooling temperature) and obscuration by galactic column. Those clusters with strong cooling flows show large cooling flow fractions at their centres. In Fig. 14 we present $`C`$ band cooling flow fraction profiles for our four example clusters. The errors shown only take account of the uncertainties in the $`C/D`$ ratio.

### 4.3 Calculating intrinsic absorption

By rearranging equations (5), (6) and (7), we can predict the observed $`B/D`$ colour from the $`C/D`$ colour and the models. Rearranging,

$$\left[\frac{B}{D}\right]_{\mathrm{pred}}=\frac{\left[\frac{C}{D}\right]_{\mathrm{obs}}\frac{C_{\mathrm{cf}}}{D_{\mathrm{cf}}}}{\frac{C_{\mathrm{iso}}}{B_{\mathrm{iso}}}\frac{C_{\mathrm{cf}}}{B_{\mathrm{iso}}}\frac{D_{\mathrm{iso}}}{D_{\mathrm{cf}}}}+\frac{\left[\frac{C}{D}\right]_{\mathrm{obs}}\frac{C_{\mathrm{iso}}}{D_{\mathrm{iso}}}}{\frac{C_{\mathrm{cf}}}{B_{\mathrm{cf}}}\frac{C_{\mathrm{iso}}}{B_{\mathrm{cf}}}\frac{D_{\mathrm{cf}}}{D_{\mathrm{iso}}}}.$$
(9)
We found that the predicted $`B/D`$ colour does not match the observed value. The $`B/D`$ ratio is more sensitive to absorption than the $`C/D`$ ratio (Fig. 11 and 12). Assuming the difference between the observed and predicted values of $`B/D`$ is due to intrinsic absorption, then it is possible to use the above equation to find the increase in absorption. We varied the obscuring column density to find $`\{B,C,D\}_{\{\mathrm{iso},\mathrm{cf}\}}`$ until the predicted $`B/D`$ ratio from equation (9) was the same as the observed one.

We then plotted a profile showing the required extra absorption above galactic as a function of contour for each cluster. Those clusters with strong cooling flows show an increase in absorption at their centres. Fig. 15 shows profiles of the required extra absorption for our example four clusters. Listed in Table 4 are the required absorption increases for each cluster in our sample. This value is the difference between the absorption in the central contour and the mean of the two outer ones. We took the mean outer contours to decrease the chance of background contamination. We looked at the difference in absorption between the centre and outside of the cluster, rather than the absolute difference from the central absorption to galactic, because the galactic absorption value is uncertain for many clusters. The errors on the values assume that all uncertainty is due to the observed $`B/D`$ ratio. $`S(\mathrm{\Delta }N_H)`$ shows the significance of the increased absorption using an expression with the same form as equation (3).

## 5 Discussion

### 5.1 Adaptively-smoothed images

Many of the cooling flow clusters in our sample show relatively featureless elliptical images after adaptive smoothing. We present some interesting ones, and those of the Perseus, Virgo and A2199 clusters in Fig. 1, 2 and 3. The clusters show structure which appears to vary between the different bands.

### 5.2 The sample of clusters

Fig. 7 and 8 show that clusters with low galactic latitude, or those masked by regions of high absorption, show low $`B/D`$ and $`C/D`$ colours. These clusters include, for example, Ophiuchus, PKS 0745-191 and Cygnus A.

Those clusters with strong cooling flows show large $`C/D`$ ratios, or softer X-rays, at their centres, with large $`C/D`$ gradients moving towards their centres. These include, for example, Virgo, Perseus, 2A 0335+096, Centaurus and A2199. They therefore contain cool gas at small radii, within a few arcminutes of the centre. This can be seen by comparison with the theoretical curves in Fig. 11. The only way of achieving the gradient is by adding cooler gas. Those clusters without strong cooling flows do not show this strong colour gradient, for example, Coma, A2256 and A119.

### 5.3 Comparison with models

The isothermal temperatures derived using the isothermal model in the outer regions of the clusters agree in most cases with those derived from $`ASCA`$ data (White 2000). There are a few clusters, most of which are absorbed by high galactic column densities, for which we find unusually low temperatures. These include Perseus, PKS 0745-191, A478 and Cygnus-A. We note that we were able to reproduce the Perseus $`ASCA`$ temperature result using a column of $`10^{21}`$ atom $`\text{cm}^2`$.

Those clusters with strong cooling flows show good evidence of absorbing material at their centres. For example Virgo, Centaurus, Perseus and A478 all show significant increased levels of absorption. There is no evidence for absorbing material in those clusters without cooling flows. Abundance gradients in cooling flow clusters have been observed, for example in the Centaurus cluster (Fukazawa et al. 1994), the Virgo cluster (Matsumoto et al. 1996) and AWM7 (Ezawa et al. 1997), with the metallicities decreasing outwards from the cluster centres. Due to the relationship on $`B/D`$ colour from absorption and metallicity, there is some degeneracy in the two variables. At low temperatures metallicity has its strongest effect (Fig. 11), so if we have overestimated the levels of absorption, then it will be primarily for those clusters with metallicity gradients. However, we found that metallicity gradients were not sufficient by themselves to account for the observed colour gradients.

The PSPC detector limits the energy bounds of our observations. There are too few independent energy bands to make more than two colours, which limits the number of physical quantities we can fit the data. More colours will help to completely resolve any degeneracy between metallicity and absorbing column density. Data from *Chandra* will be able to solve this completely. The increased effective area of the telescope will also improve our statistics, reducing the uncertainties in our colours.

Allen & Fabian (1997) used a partial screening model in conjunction with a deprojection method on their data. Using a partial screening model results in larger column densities than those predicted without. Doing a similar analysis would show larger levels of absorption in our clusters, however it would add unnecessary complexity to our procedure. We also did not take the absorption results to check for consistency with the $`C/D`$ ratio, but do not expect the results to be significantly different.

## 6 Conclusions

We have presented an analysis of X-ray colour maps. The analysis technique attempts to group areas of the image together in order to maximize the signal to noise of the results, but preserving information about the structure of the object. This technique will be useful in examining data from the current generation of new X-ray telescopes. These data will show large variations in count rate, and will need analysis which is more intelligent than simple binning.

We created colour X-ray maps of the cores of a sample of 33 clusters, almost doubling the sample of Allen & Fabian (1997). The profiles generated from these maps show that there is cooling gas at the centres of those clusters with strong cooling flows. There is no evidence for cooling gas in clusters inferred from imaging deprojection or other methods to have weak, or no, cooling flow. We find a clear anti-correlation between the central cooling time of a cluster and the $`C/D`$ colour gradient significance. The central cooling time is an indicator of the quality of cooling flow data. We also find a correlation between the cooling flow flux and the $`C/D`$ significance. The maps of the non-cooling-flow clusters contain more structure as a group than those clusters with cooling flows.

We fitted a single-phase isothermal model to the $`C/D`$ colour of each of the contours of our sample of clusters. Those clusters with strong cooling flows show a significant decrease in the fitted temperatures of their inner contours relative to their outer contours. An isothermal gas with a varying metallicity alone was also not able to fit our data. We added a cooling flow component to the model with the same upper temperature as the isothermal plasma. Those clusters with cooling flows required the addition of a significant fraction of cooling flow model in their centres to account for the $`C/D`$ colour. To fit the observed $`B/D`$ colour we required the addition of extra absorbing material at the centres of our strong cooling flow clusters. This provides more evidence that cooling flows accumulate cold material. There was no evidence for intrinsic absorbing material for clusters without cooling flows.

## Acknowledgements

ACF and JSS thank the Royal Society and PPARC for support, respectively. This research made use of the LEDAS archive of Leicester University. The authors would like to thank the referee for his constructive comments on the original manuscript.


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# 1 Undercharged brane.

ITEP/TH-27/00

hepth/xxyyzzz

Big Bang in $`AdS_5`$ with external field and flat 4d Universe

A.S.Gorsky and K.G.Selivanov

ITEP, Moscow, 117259, B.Cheryomushkinskaya 25

## Abstract

We describe spontaneous creation of the Brane World in $`AdS_5`$ with external field. The resulting Brane World consists of a flat 4d spatially finite expanding Universe and curved expanding ”regulator” branes. No negative tension branes are involved.

1. Recently a lot of attention has been paid to the possibility to have large  and even infinite  extra dimensions instead of traditional Kaluza-Klein picture where extra dimensions are extremely small and thus invisible at moderate energy scales.

The idea of those considerations is that matter , gauge fields  and gravity  can be a sort of localized on branes (in the present context branes can be viewed on as fundamental branes or effective domain walls) so that, say, Newton law is the same as in flat 4d world with small corrections beyond the reach of the current experimental physics.

A particular construction in  included two slices of $`AdS_5`$ matched with each other along two 3-branes (i.e. branes with 4d world-sheet). The branes were localized on a circle in 5th dimension, radius of the circle being arbitrarily large. The slices of $`AdS_5`$ were taken in such a way that the 3-branes were flat in either of them. Main feature of this model is that when parameters of the model (cosmological constant in $`AdS_5`$ and tension of the brane) are tuned to guaranty the existence of the stable brane located along the flat section of AdS, one automatically obtains zero cosmological constant in 4d world on the brane. A disadvantage of the model (as well as of its modifications, see e.g. modifications with three branes, two of which have negative tensions  and some others ) is the necessity to have auxiliary brane(s) with negative tension. The negative tension branes (regulator branes, R-branes) have been realized as a crucial problem of the construction (see, e.g. ), and attempts have been taken to overcome it  or even to abandon the Brane World in favor of the other ideas about vanishing cosmological constant, e.g. the one of  which was recently revisited in .

In a recent paper  the present authors have suggested a tunneling mechanism resulting in a brane configuration looking very similar to the configurations in , . The R-branes in the configuration produced are not parallel to the physical brane (RS-brane) and rapidly expand. RS-brane is spatially finite, the size being of the same order as the distance to R-brane. What is important that none of the branes has negative tension. A peculiar feature of the configuration is that RS-brane is not located along the flat section of AdS, hence the 4d cosmological constant is not zero, and even 4d localization of gravity on RS-brane, perhaps, requires additional justification.

In the present letter we describe a tunneling into the Brane World such that the resulting RS-brane is a peace of the same flat section of $`AdS_5`$ as in . Thus our 4d Universe living on RS-brane is flat and spatially finite and we can take for granted from  the 4d localization of gravity on the RS-brane and the validity of 4d Newton law far enough in the future. RS-brane is restricted by junction manifold where RS-brane meets with rapidly expanding R-branes.

The setup of our consideration is as follows. Originally, one has $`AdS_5`$ with homogeneous 4-form field $`B`$ (so that its curvature $`H=dB`$ is proportional to the volume form with a constant coefficient). Brane production in that context has been studied in  (see also ). The study essentially reduces to the study of minimal charged surfaces in AdS with the homogeneous field. These surfaces were (up to minor subtleties) described in . They are classified into three classes: undercharged ones (saturating a sort of BPS inequality between charge and tension of the brane), overcharged ones (breaking the BPS inequality) and BPS ones (see fig.1-4). Actually, only overcharged ones were in  given a tunneling interpretation, the others have infinite volume. Our innovation compared to  is to include junctions of those surfaces (junctions in in tunneling were first encountered in , in  junctions were extensively used in description of the induced brane pair production). Our Big Bang bounce is glued out of three peaces of branes \- of BPS one, of undercharged one and of overcharged one (see fig.5). The BPS brane plays the role of RS-brane, the others are R-branes. Notice that the overcharged branes inherit the metric of the sphere, the undercharged branes \- the one of AdS, and the BPS brane - the flat one, we shall discuss this point in more details later.

The paper is organized as follows. First we describe the charged minimal surfaces in AdS with external field. Then we construct the Big Bang bounce describing tunneling into the Brane World. Finally we present our conclusions. Throughout the paper we use the test brane approximation - the same approximation as in  \- that is we neglect the brane back reaction on the gravity and field. The construction is straightforwardly generalizable beyond this approximation along the lines of .

2. In this section we describe, essentially following , ”Euclidean” minimal charged surfaces, that is, solutions of test brane worldsheet equations relevant for tunneling (the ideas of that kind of consideration of tunneling were developed in ). Effective action of the test brane can be taken in the following form:

$$S=T\sqrt{g}+QB$$
(1)
where $`T`$ stands for tension of the brane, $`Q`$ stands for its charge, $`g`$ is induced metric on the brane and $`B`$ is a $`(d1)`$-form field. The integrals are over brane worldsheet. If one takes the metric of AdS as in ,

$$ds^2=R_{ads}^2\left(\mathrm{cosh}^2\rho d\tau ^2+d\rho ^2+\mathrm{sinh}^2\rho d\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}^2\right),$$
(2)
where $`R_{ads}`$ is the anti-de Sitter radius, and assumes that the curvature form $`H=dB`$ of the $`B`$-field is proportional to the volume form with a constant coefficient (flux density), and also assumes the spherical symmetry of the brane worldsheet, one reduces Eq.(1) as follows :

$$S=TR_{ads}^{d1}\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}𝑑\tau \left[\mathrm{sinh}^{d2}\rho \sqrt{\mathrm{cosh}^2\rho +\left(\frac{d\rho }{d\tau }\right)^2}q\mathrm{sinh}^{d1}\rho \right]$$
(3)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}=\frac{2\pi ^{\frac{(d1)}{2}}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{d1}{2})}`$ stands for the volume of a unit d-2 sphere and $`q`$ is a constant made out of the flux density, brane charge and the brane tension. $`q=1`$ is identified in  as the BPS case. The branes with $`q<1`$ will be referred to as undercharged ones and those with $`q>1`$ \- as overcharged.

Before describing them we would like to relate the metric Eq.(2) used in  to more canonical ones. Upon the change of variables,

$$\mathrm{tanh}\tau =\mathrm{tan}\theta $$
(4)
the metric Eq.(2) is put to the form

$$ds^2=R_{ads}^2\frac{d\tau ^2+d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}^2}{\mathrm{cos}^2\theta }$$
(5)
Finally, upon the change of variables

$$z=e^\tau \mathrm{cos}\theta ,r=e^\tau \mathrm{sin}\theta $$
(6)
one obtains the following canonical form of AdS metric

$$ds^2=R_{ads}^2\frac{dz^2+dr^2+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}^2}{z^2}.$$
(7)
Let us first consider minimal surfaces for the case with $`q<1`$ which look as follows (see also fig.1):

$$\mathrm{cosh}\rho =\frac{\mathrm{sinh}\tau _m}{\mathrm{sinh}(\tau +a)}$$
(8)
where $`\mathrm{tanh}\tau _m=q`$.

Notice that we have added a modulus $`a`$ compared to Eq.(4.8) in . In the context of  this modulus represents the time translation symmetry and it is more or less irrelevant. In terms of metric Eq.(7) this modulus rather defines a scale. The moduli are necessary to describe the correct limit to the BPS case ($`a`$ is sent to infinity when $`q1`$) and they are also necessary to construct the Big Bang bounce with junctions which we are describing below. Notice also that in our construction below it is one of the coordinates orthogonal to $`z`$ which is interpreted as Euclidean time, unlike , where the role of Euclidean time is played by $`\tau `$.

In coordinates Eq(4) the undercharged surfaces take the form

$$\mathrm{cos}\theta =\frac{\mathrm{sinh}(\tau +a)}{\mathrm{sinh}\tau _m}.$$
(9)
As we pointed in the Introduction, restriction of the $`AdS_5`$ metric Eq.(5) onto the undercharged surfaces Eq.(11) gives the metric of $`AdS_4`$.

Let us now turn to the case with $`q>1`$. The relevant charged minimal surfaces look as follows (see also fig.2):

$$\mathrm{cosh}\rho =\frac{\mathrm{cosh}\rho _m}{\mathrm{cosh}(\tau +b)}$$
(10)
where $`\mathrm{tanh}\rho _m=1/q`$. We have again added a modulus $`b`$ compared to Eq.(4.5) in . In coordinates Eq(4) the overcharged surfaces take the form

$$\mathrm{cos}\theta =\frac{\mathrm{cosh}(\tau +b)}{\mathrm{cosh}\rho _m}.$$
(11)
As we pointed in the Introduction, restriction of the $`AdS_5`$ metric Eq.(5) onto the overcharged surfaces Eq.(11) gives the metric of the sphere $`S_4`$.

The BPS case (q=1) can be obtained as a limit from either of the cases above. Corresponding surfaces look as follows (see also fig.3):

$$\mathrm{cos}\theta =\frac{1}{z_0}e^\tau $$
(12)
where $`z_0`$ is a constant. Upon the inversion transformation one obtains

$$e^\tau \mathrm{cos}\theta =z_0$$
(13)
In terms of Eq.(7) these are the surfaces $`z=z_0`$ (fig.4). Apparently, restriction of the AdS metric onto these surfaces gives flat Euclidean metric.

Only overcharged surfaces admit a tunneling interpretation , since undercharged and BPS ones reach the boundary of AdS space and thus have infinite volume and infinite effective action.

3. We shall now construct the bounce which describes tunneling into the Brane World. It is glued out of three pieces - a piece of BPS brane located along $`z=z_0`$ section, Eq.(13), and playing a role of RS-brane in the Brane World, a piece of undercharged brane, Eq.(9), located above the BPS brane (in the fixed coordinates of the type of Eq.(7) and playing a role of one R-brane, and a piece of overcharged brane, Eq.(11), located below the BPS brane and playing the role of the other R-brane (see fig.5). All three pieces are glued along the junction manifold. The usual junction conditions are the charge conservation and the tension forces balance at the junction  . We shall assume that there is no junction energy contribution to the effective action (such contributions were studied in  in the context of specific central charges), though this assumption is not crucial for the existence of solution.

Apparently, the configuration sketched above has a finite effective action since none of the constituting pieces reaches the AdS boundary , hence the tunneling goes with a finite probability which can be easily computed. Notice that analogously to constructions in  one needs a brane breaking BPS inequality in order to have a finite probability of tunneling. An example of this type of brane in string theory was given in .

Junction manifold is of the type $`\theta =const`$, $`\tau =const`$, and since overall rescaling of the solution is not important (the effective action is invariant under total rescaling, or, equivalently, under total shift in $`\tau `$-coordinate), we take it as follows:

$$\theta =\theta _c,\tau _c=0$$
(14)
From Eqs.(13),(9),(11) one immediately obtains

$`\mathrm{cos}\theta _c=z_0,`$
$`\mathrm{sinh}a=\mathrm{sinh}\tau _m\mathrm{cos}\theta _c`$ (15)
$`\mathrm{cosh}b=\mathrm{cosh}\rho _m\mathrm{cos}\theta _c.`$
The Eqs.(13),(9),(11), (14),(S0.Ex1) specify the geometry of the Big Bang bounce. However we still have to define charges of the branes involved and to verify that the junction conditions are fulfilled.

The charge conservation, with appropriate choice of orientation of the branes, reads

$$Q_0=Q_{}Q_+.$$
(16)
Hereafter subscripts ”0”,”-”, and ”+” indicate the BPS brane, the undercharged brane and the overcharged brane. All $`Q`$’s are assumed to be positive.

The force balance condition obviously reads (we take projections onto $`/\theta `$ and onto $`/\tau `$ directions):

$`T_0\mathrm{cos}\alpha _0+T_{}\mathrm{cos}\alpha _{}=T_+\mathrm{cos}\alpha _+`$
$`T_0\mathrm{sin}\alpha _0+T_+\mathrm{sin}\alpha _+=T_{}\mathrm{sin}\alpha _{}`$ (17)
where the angles are defined on fig.5. From geometry of the picture and using Eqs.(11),(9),(14), (S0.Ex1) one obtains

$`\alpha _0=\theta _c`$
$`\mathrm{tan}\alpha _{}={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}\theta _c\mathrm{sinh}\tau _m}{\mathrm{cosh}a}}`$ (18)
$`\mathrm{tan}\alpha _+={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}\theta _c\mathrm{cosh}\rho _m}{\mathrm{sinh}b}}`$
According to the above definition of $`q`$ (see Eq.(3)) we take the following parametrization of the tensions of the three pieces of the bounce:

$$T_0=Q_0T,T_{}=\frac{Q_{}}{q_{}}T,T_+=\frac{Q_+}{q_+}T$$
(19)
where $`q_{}=\mathrm{tanh}\tau _m`$, $`q_+=1/\mathrm{tanh}\rho _m`$.

Substituting Eq.(19) into the force balance condition Eq.(S0.Ex3) and using the charge conservation condition Eq.(16) one obtains a linear system for the charges of R-branes:

$`Q_{}\left(\mathrm{cos}\theta _c+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}\alpha _{}}{q_{}}}\right)Q_+\left(\mathrm{cos}\theta _c+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}\alpha _+}{q_+}}\right)=0`$
$`Q_{}\left(\mathrm{sin}\theta _c{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}\alpha _{}}{q_{}}}\right)Q_+\left(\mathrm{sin}\theta _c{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}\alpha _+}{q_+}}\right)=0`$ (20)
Using Eqs.(S0.Ex1,(S0.Ex4) one can straightforwardly verify that determinant of this linear system is equal to zero, so the system is compatible and defines the ratio of charges of the R-branes at which the force balance condition Eq.(S0.Ex3) is satisfied. This completes our construction of the Big Bang bounce.

4. We have described spontaneous creation of the brane configuration which looks very similar to those involved in the so called Brane World scenario. The initial background consists of $`AdS_5`$ metric and homogeneous 4-form field (so that its curvature form is proportional to the volume form with a constant coefficient), the final state (in ”Minkowski” picture) involves a spatially finite, flat piece of brane at rest (RS-brane) restricted by the junction with two expanding R-branes, the distance between RS- and R- branes and the size of the R-branes rapidly increasing. Since RS-brane is located along the same section of $`AdS_5`$ as the physical brane in , we take for granted the 4d localization of gravity and the validity of 4d Newton law (modulo decreasing finite size effects) on the RS-brane. We stress that no negative tension branes are involved in our picture.

To conclude, we would like to point out following interesting features of this kind of model.

i)As we already pointed out in , in a model of this kind the early Universe is five dimensional so one could expect interesting cosmological implications.

ii)Since the RS-brane is a piece of the BPS brane, we expect that 4d supersymmetry is broken by the finite size effects. Moreover the scale of the SUSY breaking effects changes in time.

iii)Interesting cosmological consequences should follow the fact that a matter, which is assumed to be localized on the branes, can penetrate via junction manifold to/from our 4d Universe from/to the RS branes (junctions in the Brane World context were considered in ). In particular there are models with chirality localized on the junctions so in such case we would have a kind of anomaly phenomena.

iv) Finally, note that string or branes connecting RS- and R-branes would result in the particle or extended objects with increasing masses (tensions) in the Brane World.

The work of A.G was partially supported by grants INTAS-99-1705 and RFBR-98-01-00327 and the work of K.S.- by grant INTAS-97-0103.


text:
# Small-scale inviscid accretion discs around black holes

## 1 Introduction

Spherical accretion flows onto black holes (BHs) have low radiative efficiencies (Shvartsman 1971; Shapiro 1973; but see also Bisnovatyi-Kogan & Ruzmaikin 1974; Mészáros 1975). If the flow is slightly rotating, the situation changes crucially: a small-scale accretion disc forms and then the BH ‘switches on’ as a luminous source. The condition for disc formation reads $`l>l_{}`$ where $`l`$ is the specific angular momentum of the accreting matter and $`l_{}=0.75r_gc`$ (see Section 2.2), $`r_g=2GM/c^2`$ being the Schwarzschild radius. The standard disc model assumes $`ll_{}`$ (see Pringle 1981 for a review). High-$`l`$ discs can form, e.g., in X-ray binaries fed by streams from Lagrangian $`L_1`$ point.

By contrast, in wind-fed X-ray binaries, the accretion flows are quasi-spherical with $`ll_{}`$ (see e.g. Frank, King, & Raine 1992 for a review). The average $`l`$ of the accreting wind matter is $`\overline{l}=\zeta (1/4)\mathrm{\Omega }R_a^2`$ (Illarionov & Sunyaev 1975; Shapiro & Lightman 1976) where $`R_a=2GM/w^210^{11}`$ cm is the accretion radius, $`w10^8`$ cm s<sup>-1</sup> is the wind velocity, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the angular velocity of the binary, and $`\zeta 1`$ is a numerical factor. Three X-ray binaries have been classified as massive ones with black hole companions: Cyg X-1, LMC X-1, and LMC X-3 (see Tanaka & Lewin 1995). They have orbital periods $`P=2\pi /\mathrm{\Omega }=5.6`$, 4.2, and 1.7 d, respectively. Hence, $`\overline{l}1.5\zeta P^1(M/\mathrm{M}_{})(w/10^8)^4r_gcl_{}`$ in these objects, that implies marginal formation of a small-scale disc. Whether the disc forms or not depends on the precise value of angular momentum which is difficult to calculate because the details of wind accretion are not fully understood (note the strong dependence of $`\overline{l}`$ on the wind velocity, $`w`$). The fact that the objects are luminous indicates that a disc does form.

Small-scale accretion discs may also form around massive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN). Among possible sources of the accreting gas in AGN are star-star collisions and tidal disruption of stars by the BH (Hills 1975). The accretion flow is then likely to have a modest angular momentum.

The regime $`l>l_{}`$ can be widespread among luminous black-hole sources. Note that only a small number of wind-fed BH binaries and galactic nuclei are active, and most of the unseen objects may accrete in the spherical regime $`l<l_{}`$ with a low luminosity. The observed bright sources with $`l>l_{}`$ are then in the ‘tail’ of the distribution of objects over angular momentum, $`\mathrm{d}N/\mathrm{d}l`$. If this distribution falls steeply towards high $`l`$, most of the bright sources should be near the threshold for disc formation.

In this paper, we construct an axisymmetric model of accretion with $`l>l_{}`$. The outline of the model is as follows. The accretion flow starts at large distances where it is almost spherical; the gas is Compton cooled and it falls freely towards the BH. Near the BH, the rotation deflects the infall from the radial direction and a disc-like caustic appears in the defocused flow. Here the flow liberates energy in inelastic collision and then proceeds via the thin disc into the BH. Such a disc is drastically different from its standard counterpart as regards the dynamics, the mechanism of energy release and the emission spectrum.

The paper is organised as follows. In Section 2, we study the axisymmetric free fall in the gravitational field of a Schwarzschild BH and discuss the caustic in the equatorial plane (the collision ring) where the accretion disc is formed. In Section 3, we write down the basic equations of the disc. In Section 4, we solve the equations numerically, obtain a model for the disc structure, and find the efficiency of accretion. Most of the energy is released quite close to the event horizon, at $`2r_g`$, and the problem requires exact relativistic treatment. All the calculations are relativistic (assuming a non-rotating BH). For comparison, in Section 5, we also formulate and compute the analogous Newtonian problem. The results and issues for further study are discussed in Section 6.

## 2 Formation of a small-scale disc

Let us consider an axisymmetric accretion flow slowly rotating around the polar axis, so that the non-radial velocity $`v_\phi v_r`$ at $`Rr_g`$ (an asymptotically spherical inflow). As a result of Compton cooling by the inner source, the inflow becomes super-sonic inside the Compton radius, $`R_\mathrm{C}10^4r_g`$ (see e.g. Illarionov & Kompaneets 1990). At $`R<R_\mathrm{C}`$, the matter accretes along ballistic parabolic trajectories. The freely falling flow in Newtonian gravity is discussed in Illarionov & Beloborodov (2000, hereafter IB). Here we need the relativistic equations since the typical radius at which accretion switches from the spherical to a disc-like regime, $`Rl^2/r_gc^2`$, is comparable to $`r_g`$ in our problem. Hereafter label ‘$`\mathrm{}`$’ corresponds to radii $`Rr_g`$ (but $`R<R_\mathrm{C}`$).

### 2.1 Free fall

Consider a free-fall trajectory in Schwarzschild $`(t,R,\theta ,\phi )`$-coordinates. Let $`\lambda `$ be proper time along the trajectory. Denote the orbital angular momentum by $`𝐥`$; its projection onto the polar axis is

$`l_z=l\mathrm{sin}\theta _{\mathrm{}}.`$
A parabolic trajectory (with specific orbital energy $`E=c^2`$) is described by equations (see e.g. Misner, Thorne & Weeler 1973)

$$R^2\frac{\mathrm{d}R}{\mathrm{d}\lambda }=\sqrt{r_gc^2R^3l^2R^2(1\frac{r_g}{R})},$$
(1)
$$R^2\frac{\mathrm{d}\theta }{\mathrm{d}\lambda }=l_z\sqrt{\mathrm{ctg}^2\theta _{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{ctg}^2\theta },$$
(2)
$$R^2\frac{\mathrm{d}\phi }{\mathrm{d}\lambda }=\frac{l_z}{\mathrm{sin}^2\theta }.$$
(3)
The only difference from the corresponding Newtonian equations is the presence of the additional factor $`(1r_g/R)`$ in equation (1). One can solve equations (1-3) for the trajectory $`\theta (R),\phi (R)`$,

$$\mathrm{cos}\theta =\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{cos}\psi ,$$
(4)
$$\mathrm{sin}(\phi \phi _{\mathrm{}})=\frac{\mathrm{sin}\psi }{\mathrm{sin}\theta },$$
(5)
$$\psi (R)=_R^{\mathrm{}}\frac{l\mathrm{d}R}{\sqrt{r_gc^2R^3l^2R^2(1r_g/R)}}.$$
(6)
The $`\psi `$ has the meaning of an orbital angle. In the Newtonian limit, $`r_g/R0`$, equation (6) gives $`\mathrm{cos}\psi =1l^2/GMR`$ (eq. 11 in IB).

The accreting matter streams from a sphere $`S_{\mathrm{}}`$ along the ballistic trajectories. The flow is assumed to be symmetric about the equatorial plane. In this plane, a streamline has to collide with its symmetric counterpart (see Fig. 1). The loci of collisions form a two-dimensional caustic, the collision ring.

We assume that there are no intersections of the sreamlines before they reach the equatorial plane. It is so if the Jacobian of the transformation $`\theta _{\mathrm{}},\phi _{\mathrm{}}\theta (R),\phi (R)`$ stays positive along the streamlines. Taking into account that $`\theta _R/\phi _{\mathrm{}}=0`$ and $`\phi _R/\phi _{\mathrm{}}=1`$ for any axisymmetric flow, the condition of positive Jacobian reads

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{cos}\theta _R}{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mathrm{}}}}=\mathrm{cos}\psi \mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{sin}\psi {\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}\psi }{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mathrm{}}}}>0.`$
It is satisfied if $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{d}\psi /\mathrm{d}\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mathrm{}}<0`$. Since $`\psi `$ increases with increasing $`l`$, the condition can be rewritten as

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}l}{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{sin}\theta _{\mathrm{}}}>0.$$
(7)
Hereafter we assume that condition (7) is satisfied.

### 2.2 The collision ring

Streamlines coming from $`S_{\mathrm{}}`$ with $`\theta _{\mathrm{}}\pi /2`$ collide in the symmetry plane and define a mapping $`\phi _{\mathrm{}},\theta _{\mathrm{}}r,\phi `$. Here $`(r,\phi )`$ are polar coordinates in the equatorial plane. (The $`r`$ has the same meaning as $`R`$; we use different notation to emphasize that $`r`$ measures radius in the plane.) The mapping is given by equations (4-6) with $`\theta =\pi /2`$. Equations (4) and (5) say that a streamline reaches the equatorial plane at $`\psi =\pi /2`$ and executes 1/4 of the full turn around the polar axis, $`\phi =\phi _{\mathrm{}}+\pi /2`$. A circle $`\theta _{\mathrm{}}=const`$ at $`S_{\mathrm{}}`$ transforms into a circle $`r=const`$ with the $`\pi /2`$ rotation. The radius of collision is found from $`\psi =\pi /2`$,

$$_r^{\mathrm{}}\frac{l\mathrm{d}R}{\sqrt{r_gc^2R^3l^2R^2(1r_g/R)}}=\frac{\pi }{2}.$$
(8)
Here $`l(\theta _{\mathrm{}})=l(\pi \theta _{\mathrm{}})`$ is the angular momentum of the colliding streamlines. Equation (8) involves an elliptic integral. At $`rr_g`$, it is simplified and yields the Newtonian relation, $`r=l^2/GM`$. The relativistic effects do not crucially alter the Newtonian expression even at $`rr_g`$. The solution to equation (8) can be written as an expansion which, in the leading order, yields

$`r={\displaystyle \frac{l^2}{GM}}{\displaystyle \frac{(103\pi )}{4}}r_g{\displaystyle \frac{l^2}{GM}}{\displaystyle \frac{r_g}{7}}.`$
This equation reproduces the exact solution $`r(l)`$ with high accuracy (the maximum error $`<0.5`$ per cent at $`r=r_g`$).

The collision occurs outside the event horizon if $`l`$ exceeds a minimum value, $`l_{}`$, such that $`r(l_{})=r_g`$. From equation (8) one finds $`l_{}0.754r_gc`$. (In the Newtonian approximation, $`l_{}=r_gc/\sqrt{2}0.707r_gc`$.) A streamline with $`l<l_{}`$ goes directly into the BH (see Fig. 1). A streamline with $`0.754<l/r_gc<2`$ would also end up in the BH (see e.g. Novikov & Frolov 1989). The collision in the equatorial plane, however, happens before that, at $`r<8r_g`$.

Streamlines starting at $`\theta _{\mathrm{}}\pi /2`$ have the largest angular momentum, $`ll_0`$, and define the outer edge of the collision ring, $`r_0l_0^2/GMr_g/7`$.

A collisionless shock forms on each side of the ring. The accretion picture shown in Fig. 1 assumes that the shock is radiative and pinned to the ring; we study this condition in Section 2.3. The free-fall equations (1-3) give the three components of the flow velocity in the preshock region; note that the azimuthal velocity is about the radial one.

### 2.3 The pinned shocks and vertical mixing

The vertical component of the plasma velocity is reduced at the shock front by a factor of $`\xi 4`$, while the horizontal velocity remains unchanged (the horizontal motion towards the BH can stay super-sonic). The dissipated kinetic energy goes mostly to ion heating and some fraction $`ϵ`$ may go to electron heating (studies of interplanetary and interstellar shocks indicate $`ϵ0.20.3`$, see Draine & McKee 1993). The electrons immediately (at the shock front) radiate the received energy via inverse Compton scattering, producing hard gamma-rays (Shapiro & Salpeter 1975). The gamma-rays are converted into $`e^\pm `$ pairs and increase the downstream electron density by a factor of $`z>1`$. The cooled downstream $`e^\pm `$ then take the energy from the ions.

The radiative capability of the shocked plasma depends on $`ϵ`$ and also on the rate of energy exchange between the downstream electrons and protons. The minimal e-p coupling is provided by Coulomb collisions: the electrons of temperature $`T_e`$ cool the protons of temperature $`T_p`$ on a time-scale (Landau & Lifshitz 1981),

$$t_{\mathrm{Coul}}=\frac{\sqrt{\pi /2}m_p\theta _e^{3/2}}{m_ec\sigma _\mathrm{T}zn\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Lambda }}17\frac{T_e^{3/2}}{zn}\mathrm{s},$$
(9)
where $`n`$ is the proton density, and a Coulomb logarithm $`\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Lambda }=15`$ and $`\theta _ekT_e/m_ec^2<1`$ are assumed. The e-p coupling can be enhanced by collective plasma effects, so that the proton cooling time-scale is $`t_{\mathrm{ep}}=\chi ^1t_{\mathrm{Coul}}`$ where $`\chi >1`$.

The shock is radiative and held-down to the equatorial plane if $`t_{\mathrm{ep}}`$ is shorter than $`\xi r/v_{\mathrm{ff}}`$ where $`v_{\mathrm{ff}}=c(r_g/r)^{1/2}`$ is the typical free-fall velocity. The downstream density can be estimated in terms of the accretion rate $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{tot}}`$: $`n\xi \dot{M}_{\mathrm{tot}}/4\pi r^2m_pv_{\mathrm{ff}}`$. The condition that the shock is pinned to the equatorial plane then reads

$$\frac{v_{\mathrm{ff}}t_{\mathrm{ep}}}{\xi r}=\frac{\sqrt{2\pi }m_p\theta _e^{3/2}}{z\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Lambda }m_e\xi ^2\chi \dot{m}}<1,$$
(10)
where $`\dot{m}=\dot{M}_{\mathrm{tot}}c^2/L_\mathrm{E}`$ is the dimensionless total accretion rate and $`L_\mathrm{E}=2\pi r_gm_pc^3/\sigma _\mathrm{T}`$ is the Eddington luminosity.

The downstream electron temperature can be found from the energy balance,

$$\frac{zT_e}{t_\mathrm{C}}=\frac{T_p}{t_{\mathrm{ep}}},$$
(11)
where $`t_\mathrm{C}=3m_ec/8\sigma _\mathrm{T}U`$ is the Compton cooling time-scale and $`U`$ is the radiation energy density. For a radiative shock, the proton thermal energy is transformed into a radiation flux $`F(3/2)nkT_pv_{\mathrm{ff}}/\xi `$. It yields an estimate, $`U2F/c3nkT_pv_{\mathrm{ff}}/c\xi `$, and hence

$`t_\mathrm{C}{\displaystyle \frac{m_ec^2\xi }{8\sigma _\mathrm{T}nkT_pv_{\mathrm{ff}}}}.`$
The energy balance (11) then yields

$$\theta _e\left(\frac{\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Lambda }m_e}{\sqrt{2\pi }m_p}\frac{\xi \chi c}{4v_{\mathrm{ff}}}\right)^{2/5}0.1\left(\frac{\xi \chi c}{4v_{\mathrm{ff}}}\right)^{2/5}.$$
(12)
$`v_{\mathrm{ff}}r^{1/2}`$ and hence $`\theta _er^{1/5}`$. The temperature weakly depends on parameters.

The hot downstream layer radiating most of the proton heat has optical depth $`\tau _\mathrm{T}(v_{\mathrm{ff}}/\xi )t_{\mathrm{ep}}zn\sigma _\mathrm{T}`$. It satisfies the relation, $`\tau _\mathrm{T}\theta _e0.1`$ (as follows from eqs. 9 and 12), i.e, $`\tau _\mathrm{T}1`$ for typical $`\theta _e0.1`$. With more exact approach, the unsaturated Comptonization in the hot layer involves radiative transfer with multiple scatterings, and $`\tau _\mathrm{T}1`$ corresponds to a Kompaneets’ parameter $`y1`$ (see e.g. Rybicki & Lightman 1979). In deeper layers, at $`\tau _\mathrm{T}>1`$, the downstream temperature (both $`T_p`$ and $`T_e`$) falls off sharply (see Zel’dovich & Shakura 1969, Shapiro & Salpeter 1975 for a similar shock on the surface of a neutron star).

Using equation (12), we rewrite the condition (10) as

$$\dot{m}>\dot{m}_0\frac{0.5}{z\chi ^{2/5}}\left(\frac{4}{\xi }\right)^{7/5}\left(\frac{c}{v_{\mathrm{ff}}}\right)^{3/5}\frac{0.05}{z\theta _e}\left(\frac{4}{\xi }\right)\left(\frac{c}{v_{\mathrm{ff}}}\right).$$
(13)
We are interested here in sub-Eddington sources (with luminosities $`L<L_\mathrm{E}`$) so that the free-fall approximation can be used for the super-sonic infall. It requires $`\dot{m}<\dot{m}_\mathrm{E}=\eta ^1`$ where $`\eta `$ is the radiative efficiency of the disc (see Section 4 and Fig. 6). In the range $`\dot{m}_0<\dot{m}<\eta ^1`$ we have sub-Eddington accretion with radiatively efficient shock pinned to the equatorial plane.

This pattern of accretion is different from the previously considered situation $`\dot{m}<\dot{m}_0`$ (see e.g. Igumenshchev, Illarionov & Abramowicz 1999). In that case, the plasma is unable to cool fast and supports quasi-spherical shocks away from the collision ring. The hydrodynamic simulations of Igumenshchev et al. (1999) show that the shock tends to shrink towards the ring of radius $`l_0^2/GM`$ when $`\dot{m}`$ increases.

We hereafter assume $`\dot{m}>\dot{m}_0`$ and have a free-falling flow until it reaches the thin disc of shocked plasma. The disc has a finite half-thickness $`H`$ supported by the pressure $`p_d\rho _dc_s^2`$ against the ram pressure of the infall, $`p_{\mathrm{ff}}\rho _{\mathrm{ff}}v_{\mathrm{ff}}^2`$. Here $`\rho _d`$ and $`c_s`$ are the density and the sound speed in the midplane of the disc, and $`\rho _{\mathrm{ff}}`$ is the density of the infall. The pressure balance yields $`\rho _d/\rho _{\mathrm{ff}}(v_{\mathrm{ff}}/c_s)^2`$. The regime of pinned shock implies efficient radiative cooling and we have $`c_sv_{\mathrm{ff}}`$ and $`\rho _d\rho _{\mathrm{ff}}`$. The accretion velocity in the disc is comparable to $`v_{\mathrm{ff}}`$ (see Sections 3 and 4) and from matter conservation we estimate $`H/r\rho _{\mathrm{ff}}/\rho _d(c_s/v_{\mathrm{ff}})^2`$.

At a given radius, the disc is composed of matter that entered the disc at larger radii with different horizontal velocities. A strong turbulence is likely to develop in the disc under such conditions. The turbulence can mix the disc in the vertical direction on a time-scale $`H/c_s`$ which is $`c_s/v_{\mathrm{ff}}`$ shorter than the accretion time-scale, $`t_ar/v_{\mathrm{ff}}`$. In the mixing process, the random motions above the level $`\rho _dc_s^2`$ are converted into heat and the disc acquires a vertically-averaged horizontal velocity (with both radial and azimuthal components). The released heat is radiated away, contributing to the total luminosity.

When absorbing the infalling matter, the disc also absorbs horizontal momentum and its velocity changes. The process of disc-infall inelastic collision is governed by the corresponding law of momentum conservation (see Section 3). The disc is a ‘sticky’ caustic in the accretion flow and it resembles the accretion line in the Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton (BHL) problem (see Bondi & Hoyle 1944). We discuss this analogy in more detail below.

## 3 Fast inviscid accretion disc

The shocked turbulent gas continues to accrete into the BH through the thin disc. We will show that if the inflow angular momentum is smaller than some specific value then accretion in the disc occurs fast: the gas spirals into the BH on the free-fall time-scale. In contrast to the standard viscous disc, the radial velocity is much larger than the sound speed. Therefore, turbulent viscosity has a negligible effect on accretion, i.e. the disc is inviscid in the horizontal directions (yet the turbulence efficiently mixes the disc in the vertical direction, see Section 2.3). Thereafter we solve the problem of steady disc accretion in the inviscid regime. In illustrative calculations we assume solid body rotation of the inflow at $`S_{\mathrm{}}`$,

$$l(\theta _{\mathrm{}})=l_0\mathrm{sin}\theta _{\mathrm{}},\overline{l}_z=_0^{\pi /2}l\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{d}\theta _{\mathrm{}}=\frac{2}{3}l_0.$$
(14)
Here $`\overline{l}_z`$ is the average specific angular momentum of the inflow.

### 3.1 Accretion rate

The asymptotically spherical inflow at $`S_{\mathrm{}}`$ has a total accretion rate $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ and a homogeneous distribution $`\mathrm{d}\dot{M}/\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{}}=\dot{M}_{\mathrm{tot}}/4\pi `$ where $`\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{}}=\mathrm{d}\phi _{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mathrm{}}`$. All the matter impinging the disc finally accretes into the BH. Hence, the disc accretion rate at a radius $`r`$, $`\dot{M}(r)`$, equals the rate of matter supply to the disc at all $`r^{}>r`$, which in turn equals the rate of accretion with $`l^{}>l`$ through the equatorial segment $`\mathrm{sin}\theta _{\mathrm{}}^{}>\mathrm{sin}\theta _{\mathrm{}}`$ at $`S_{\mathrm{}}`$ (see Fig. 1),

$$\dot{M}(r)=\dot{M}_{>l}=\dot{M}_{\mathrm{tot}}\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mathrm{}}(l).$$
(15)
In the case of solid body rotation at $`S_{\mathrm{}}`$ (eq. 14), we have the relation $`\mathrm{sin}\theta _{\mathrm{}}=l/l_0`$ and hence

$$\dot{M}(r)=\dot{M}_{\mathrm{tot}}\sqrt{1\left(\frac{l}{l_0}\right)^2}.$$
(16)
Here $`l`$ is a function of $`r`$, see equation (8). With the approximate relation $`l^2GMr`$, we get

$$\dot{M}(r)\dot{M}_{\mathrm{tot}}\sqrt{1\frac{r}{r_0}}.$$
(17)
### 3.2 Angular momentum

The specific angular momentum of a steady inviscid disc, $`j(r)`$, equals the average angular momentum, $`\overline{l_z^{}}`$, of matter absorbed by the disc at $`r^{}>r`$. (It follows from the conservation of the accreting mass and conservation of the total accreted angular momentum. The radiation carries away a small fraction of the disc momentum, see Appendix A; hereafter we neglect these losses.) We get,

$$j(r)=\frac{1}{\dot{M}(r)}_r^{r_0}l_z^{}(r^{})\frac{\mathrm{d}\dot{M}}{\mathrm{d}r^{}}dr^{}=\frac{1}{\dot{M}_{>l}}_l^{l_0}l_z^{}\frac{\mathrm{d}\dot{M}}{\mathrm{d}l^{}}dl^{}.$$
(18)
Here $`l_z^{}=l^{}\mathrm{sin}\theta _{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ and $`\dot{M}_{>l}`$ is given by equation (15). The infall has $`l_z(r)<j(r)`$ and decelerates the disc rotation: $`j(r)`$ decreases inwards.

In the case of solid body rotation at $`S_{\mathrm{}}`$, we have $`\mathrm{sin}\theta _{\mathrm{}}=l/l_0`$, $`l_z=l^2/l_0`$ and $`\mathrm{d}\dot{M}/\mathrm{d}l=\dot{M}_{\mathrm{tot}}(l/l_0)(l_0^2l^2)^{1/2}`$. Working out the integral (18) then yields

$$j(r)=\frac{2}{3}l_0+\frac{1}{3}l_z(r)=\frac{2}{3}l_0+\frac{l^2(r)}{3l_0},$$
(19)
(see Fig. 2). With the approximate relation $`l^2GMr`$, we get

$$j(r)l_0\left(\frac{2}{3}+\frac{r}{3r_0}\right).$$
(20)
### 3.3 Radial equation

The matter in the disc is not in free fall because it absorbs the infalling matter. The infall accelerates the accretion in the disc (the law of momentum conservation is given in Appendix A). The equation for the disc radial velocity $`u^r`$ reads,

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}u^r}{\mathrm{d}r}=\frac{\mathrm{d}\dot{M}}{\mathrm{d}r}\frac{(\widehat{u}^ru^r)}{\dot{M}(r)}\frac{r_gc^2}{2r^2u^r}\left(1\frac{j^2}{j_\mathrm{K}^2}\right).$$
(21)
Here $`j`$ is given by equation (18) and

$$j_\mathrm{K}^2\frac{r^2r_gc^2}{2r3r_g}.$$
(22)
At $`r>(3/2)r_g`$, $`j_\mathrm{K}^2`$ has the meaning of the squared angular momentum for circular Keplerian rotation. At $`r<(3/2)r_g`$, such motion is not possible in Schwarzschild geometry, which is reflected by the fact that $`j_\mathrm{K}^2<0`$. The $`\widehat{u}^r`$ in equation (21) is the radial velocity, $`\mathrm{d}r/\mathrm{d}\lambda `$, of matter impinging the disc at radius $`r`$ (see eq. 1),

$$\widehat{u}^r=\sqrt{\frac{r_gc^2}{r}\frac{l^2}{r^2}\left(1\frac{r_g}{r}\right)},$$
(23)
with $`l`$ being related to $`r`$ via equation (8).

Note that equation (21) is formally identical to the corresponding equation in Newtonian gravity (considering $`u^r`$ as a normal Newtonian radial velocity). The relativistic effects come into the problem through $`j_\mathrm{K}^2`$, $`\widehat{u}^r`$, and the relation (8) between $`l`$ and $`r`$.

The first term on the right-hand-side of the radial equation is a result of the disc-infall interaction. Assume for a moment that inside a radius $`r_1`$ there is no matter supply to the disc. Then at $`r<r_1`$ the disc matter is freely falling with constant $`\dot{M}`$, $`j`$, and $`E`$, where $`E`$ is the orbital energy given by equation (24) below. In the presence of matter supply, $`\mathrm{d}\dot{M}/\mathrm{d}r0`$, both $`j`$ and $`E`$ change with radius.

The radial equation (21) is similar to the BHL equation describing gas motion along the accretion line (see eq. 8 in Bondi & Hoyle 1944). The only difference is that we have an additional term proportional to $`j^2/j_\mathrm{K}^2`$. This term reflects the fact that the disc matter is rotating and a repulsive centrifugal force appears. The centrifugal force dominates over gravity if $`j>j_\mathrm{K}`$ and it can stop accretion. Therefore, a steady inviscid disc may form only in accretion flows with limited net angular momentum (see Section 3.5).

The differential equation (21), like the BHL equation, does not admit analytical solution. We solve numerically equation (21) combined with the formulae (15), (18), (22), (23) for $`\dot{M}`$, $`j`$, $`j_\mathrm{K}^2`$, $`\widehat{u}^r`$, respectively, and account for the relation (8) between $`l`$ and $`r`$. The outer boundary condition is $`u^r(r_0)=\widehat{u}^r`$. The solution $`u^r(r)`$, $`j(r)`$, $`\dot{M}(r)`$ yield a closed description of the fast inviscid disc. The model is fully determined by the inflow angular momentum $`l(\theta _{\mathrm{}})`$.

### 3.4 Energy release

Once the disc dynamics is solved and $`u^r(r)`$, $`j(r)`$, $`\dot{M}(r)`$ are known, one can compute the energy liberated by the disc-infall collision. The orbital energy of the disc matter $`E=u_t`$ (see Appendix A) equals $`c^2`$ at the outer edge of the disc and decreases inwards. From $`u_iu^i=c^2`$ we have

$`E^2=c^2\left(u^r\right)^2+V^2,V^2(r)c^2\left(c^2+{\displaystyle \frac{j^2}{r^2}}\right)\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{r_g}{r}}\right).`$ (24)
The material absorbed by the fast disc at $`r^{}>r`$ and accreted down to $`r`$ liberates a luminosity $`L_{>r}=\dot{M}(r)[c^2E(r)]`$. The total energy released by the disc is

$$L=\dot{M}_d\left[c^2E(r_g)\right].$$
(25)
Here $`\dot{M}_d=\dot{M}(r_g)`$ is the total accretion rate through the disc and $`c^2E(r_g)`$ is the binding energy of gas swallowed by the BH. The energy liberated per unit radius is

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}L}{\mathrm{d}r}=\left|\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}r}\left[\dot{M}(r)\left(c^2E(r)\right)\right]\right|.$$
(26)
### 3.5 The limitation on the inflow angular momentum

The essential condition for an inviscid regime of accretion is that there is no turning point in the disc ($`u^r<0`$ everywhere). It requires $`E>V`$ (see eq. 24) where $`V(r)`$ is the effective potential for radial motion (Landau & Lifshitz 1975; see Misner et al. 1973, ch. 25 for detailed discussion). The potential has a pit at small $`r`$ and matter may fall into the BH. With increasing angular momentum, there appears a centrifugal barrier enclosing the pit and preventing accretion.

The main quantity determining the disc dynamics is the angular momentum $`j(r)`$. The no-turning-point condition $`E>V`$ can be expressed as

$`j(r)<j_t(r){\displaystyle \frac{cr}{\sqrt{rr_g}}}\sqrt{r_g+\left({\displaystyle \frac{E^2}{c^4}}1\right)r},`$ (27)
where $`j=j_t`$ corresponds to $`E=V`$. The disc orbital energy is not much below the parabolic value $`c^2`$ and, in the first approximation, $`j_t`$ can be estimated assuming $`E=c^2`$,

$`j_{t0}=cr\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{r_g}{rr_g}}},`$ (28)
which is slightly larger than $`j_t`$. The $`j_{t0}`$ reaches a minimum of $`2r_gc`$ at $`r=2r_g`$ (see Fig. 2). The fast disc can exist only with $`j(2r_g)<2r_gc`$. Note that $`j(r)>\overline{l}_z`$ at any $`r`$, where $`\overline{l}_z`$ is the average angular momentum of the inflow. Therefore, the necessary condition for the fast-disc regime reads

$`\overline{l}_z<2r_gc.`$ (29)
This limitation does not exclude distributions $`l(\theta _{\mathrm{}})`$ with a tail of large $`l`$ at $`\theta _{\mathrm{}}\pi /2`$ (and the inviscid disc can have an infinitely large radius). However, most of the accreting mass is required to have a modest angular momentum.

If the condition (29) is not satisfied, there is no stationary solution to the inviscid problem. Instead a viscous disc forms which spreads out to large radii (Kolykhalov & Sunyaev 1979). The transition to the viscous regime is rather complicated, showing unstable time-dependent behaviour, and it will be studied in a separate paper (Beloborodov & Illarionov, in preparation). Here we restrict our consideration to the fast inviscid regime.

## 4 Numerical model

We now compute the illustrative model of a fast disc formed by the inflow with angular momentum (14); then $`l_0=(3/2)\overline{l}_z`$ is the only parameter of the problem. The limitation (29) requires $`l_0<3r_gc`$. The exact critical value of $`l_0`$ is found below.

### 4.1 Dynamics

The disc accretion rate $`\dot{M}(r)`$ and its angular momentum $`j(r)`$ are given by equations (16) and (19).

The solution for the accretion velocity is shown in Fig. 3. At $`l_0=l_{\mathrm{cr}}2.62r_gc`$, the velocity profile touches zero: accretion is stopped by the centrifugal barrier at $`r_{\mathrm{cr}}2.14r_g`$ ($`j`$ touches $`j_t`$, see eq. 27, and it always stays smaller than $`j_{t0}`$, see Fig. 2). The critical radius is near $`2r_g`$, close to the minimum of $`j_{t0}`$. At $`l>l_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ the fast inviscid disc cannot exist and hence its maximum radius is $`r_{\mathrm{max}}=r_0(l_{\mathrm{cr}})13.6r_g27GM/c^2`$.

In Fig. 4, we show the trajectory of the spiraling gas in the disc. In the critical case, the gas makes infinite number of revolutions at $`r_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ before it falls into the BH. The disc surface density $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(r)=\dot{M}(r)/2\pi ru^r\mathrm{}`$ at $`rr_{\mathrm{cr}}`$.

### 4.2 The radiative efficiency

In Fig. 5 we show the distribution of the liberated energy over radius, $`r\mathrm{d}L/\mathrm{d}r`$. The energy release peaks at $`2r_g`$. The sharp peak in the critical case is caused by the minimum of $`u^r`$ (see Fig. 3). The relative velocity between the disc and the infall increases dramatically at $`r=r_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ and the inelastic collision liberates more energy. Note that in the standard disc model (Novikov & Thorne 1973) $`r\mathrm{d}L/\mathrm{d}r`$ peaks at $`9r_g`$.

The small size of the main emitting region implies that the released energy is partly captured into the BH. Accounting for the capture effect, we evaluate the observed luminosity in Appendix B,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}L_{\mathrm{obs}}}{\mathrm{d}r}}={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}L}{\mathrm{d}r}}\left[1\kappa (r)\right].`$ (30)
The capture is enhanced by the Doppler beaming of the disc radiation into the BH: the emitting material accretes fast. The effect is especially strong when $`l_0`$ is small (see Fig. 5). In the critical case, $`l_0=l_{\mathrm{cr}}`$, the accretion is decelerated at $`r2r_g`$ and the luminosity capture is less efficient.

There are a few ways to define the radiative efficiency of accretion: (i) $`\eta =L/\dot{M}_{\mathrm{tot}}c^2`$, (ii) $`\eta =L/\dot{M}_dc^2`$, (iii) $`\eta =L_{\mathrm{obs}}/\dot{M}_{\mathrm{tot}}c^2`$, and (iv) $`\eta =L_{\mathrm{obs}}/\dot{M}_dc^2`$. We choose the first definition as a basic one and compute the other three for comparison. The results are shown in Fig. 6.

The maximum efficiency, $`\eta 0.0372`$, is achieved in the critical case, $`l_0=l_{\mathrm{cr}}`$. It is smaller than the efficiency of the standard disc around a Schwarzschild black hole, $`\eta =12\sqrt{2}/30.0572`$, however it is comparable to this value. We conclude that the fast inviscid disc is quite an efficient regime of accretion.

## 5 Newtonian fast disc

In this section, we formulate and solve the fast disc problem in Newtonian gravity; the importance of the relativistic effects is well seen when comparing the BH fast disc with its Newtonian counterpart. The natural units of length and velocity in the relativistic problem are $`r_g`$ and $`c`$. The corresponding units in the Newtonian problem are the accretor radius $`R_{}`$ and the free-fall velocity

$`u_{}=\left({\displaystyle \frac{2GM}{R_{}}}\right)^{1/2}.`$
### 5.1 Dynamics and energy release

The Newtonian disc fed by matter coming from $`S_{\mathrm{}}`$ with angular momentum $`l(\theta _{\mathrm{}})`$ is described by the same dynamical equations (15), (18), and (21) as the relativistic disc. The only difference appears in the expressions for $`r(l)`$, $`j_\mathrm{K}^2(r)`$, and $`\widehat{u}^r`$,

$$r=\frac{l^2}{GM},j_\mathrm{K}^2=GMr,\widehat{u}^r=\sqrt{\frac{GM}{r}}$$
(31)
(compare with eqs. 8, 22, and 23). The major change is the equation for $`j_\mathrm{K}^2`$, which makes the disc dynamics crucially different from the relativistic case.

The specific orbital energy in Newtonian theory is

$$E(r)=\frac{(u^r)^2}{2}+V(r),V(r)\frac{GM}{r}+\frac{j^2}{2r^2}.$$
(32)
$`E=0`$ for the parabolic infall above the equatorial plane; the binding energy of the disc matter equals $`E(r)`$.

The energy liberated in the disc outside a given radius $`r`$ equals $`L_{>r}=E(r)\dot{M}(r)`$. The total luminosity of the disc is given by

$$L=E(R_{})\dot{M}_d,$$
(33)
where $`\dot{M}_d=\dot{M}(R_{})`$ is the accretion rate through the disc and $`E(R_{})`$ is the binding energy of matter that reaches the accretor. The energy liberated per unit radius is

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}L}{\mathrm{d}r}=\left|\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}r}\left[E(r)\dot{M}(r)\right]\right|.$$
(34)
The effective potential for radial motion in the disc, $`V(r)`$, is given by equation (32). The important difference from the BH case is that the pit at small $`r`$ is now absent ($`V\mathrm{}`$ at $`r0`$) and the potential produces a stronger repulsive centrifugal force. It leads to tighter constraints on the angular momentum of the fast disc regime. The condition that the disc has no turning point ($`E>V`$) in terms of angular momentum reads,

$`j(r)<j_t(r)=r\sqrt{2\left({\displaystyle \frac{GM}{r}}+E\right)}.`$ (35)
At $`E=0`$ it yields $`j_{t0}=\sqrt{2}j_\mathrm{K}`$. The minimal value $`j_{t0}=R_{}u_{}`$ at $`r=R_{}`$ implies the necessary condition for the disc formation,

$`\overline{l}_z<R_{}u_{}.`$ (36)
This limitation is twice as stringent as that in the relativistic case (compare eq. 36 with eq. 29).

### 5.2 Numerical model

We now compute an illustrative numerical model for the same inflow at $`S_{\mathrm{}}`$ as in the relativistic problem, $`\mathrm{d}\dot{M}/\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{}}=\dot{M}_{\mathrm{tot}}/4\pi `$ and $`l(\theta _{\mathrm{}})=l_0\mathrm{sin}\theta _{\mathrm{}}`$. We solve numerically equation (21) coupled with expressions (17), (20), and (31). The outer radius of the disc is given by $`r_0=l_0^2/GM`$, and the outer boundary condition is $`u^r(r_0)=\widehat{u}^r(r_0)`$. At the inner boundary, $`r=R_{}`$, the accreting matter is absorbed by the central object.

Example solutions are shown in Fig. 7-9. Like the BH case, there exists a critical angular momentum, $`l_{\mathrm{cr}}`$, such that accretion flow with $`l_0>l_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ is stopped by the centrifugal barrier. Numerically, we find $`l_{\mathrm{cr}}=1.204R_{}u_{}`$. The minimum angular momentum necessary for the disc formation is $`l_{}=R_{}u_{}/\sqrt{2}`$. The fast disc regime thus exists at $`0.707<l_0/R_{}u_{}<1.204`$.

At $`l_0=l_{\mathrm{cr}}`$, the turning point first appears at the inner boundary of the disc, $`r=R_{}`$. The disc streamlines then touch the accretor with $`u^r0`$; the gas moving from the outer edge $`r_0`$ rotates by an angle $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi 2.21`$ (see Fig. 8). The critical behaviour of the BH disc is qualitatively different: $`r_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ is twice as large as the BH radius and gas rotates an infinite number of revolutions (see Fig. 4).

The maximum radius of the fast disc is achieved at $`l_0=l_{\mathrm{cr}}`$, $`r_{\mathrm{max}}/R_{}=l_{\mathrm{cr}}^2/GMR_{}2.90`$. Hence, the Newtonian fast disc is five times smaller than its relativistic counterpart ($`r_{\mathrm{max}}/r_g13.6`$ in the BH case). We conclude that the large extension of the BH fast disc was caused by purely relativistic effects, namely, by the pit in the effective potential.

We now compute the disc luminosity. First of all, note that the total energy released in the process of accretion onto a star of radius $`R_{}`$ is $`L_{\mathrm{tot}}=\dot{M}_{\mathrm{tot}}GM/R_{}`$. The bulk of the energy is released on the star surface, and only a fraction is liberated in the disc itself. In Fig. 9 we show the radial distribution of the disc luminosity. In contrast to the BH case, the luminosity peaks at $`r=R_{}`$ (compare with Fig. 5).

The radiative efficiency of the disc is determined by the binding energy, $`E_b=E(R_{})`$ at the inner edge. The $`E_b`$ increases with $`l_0`$ and reaches its maximum at $`l_0=l_{\mathrm{cr}}`$,

$`E_b={\displaystyle \frac{GM}{R_{}}}\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2l_{\mathrm{cr}}}{3l_{}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{l_{}}{3l_{\mathrm{cr}}}}\right)^2\right]0.0572u_{}^2.`$
We here accounted for the fact that $`u^r=0`$ at $`r=R_{}`$ and used equation (19). Amusingly, the critical binding energy of the Newtonian fast disc in units of $`u_{}^2`$ exactly coincides with the binding energy of the marginally stable Keplerian orbit around a Schwarzschild BH, $`(c^2E)/c^2=12\sqrt{2}/30.0572`$.

## 6 Discussion

### 6.1 Special features of the fast disc regime

There are two principle features of the accretion regime studied in this paper, which make it different from previous models of rotating accretion flows onto black holes:

(i) The Compton cooled quasi-spherical flow is falling freely until it collides with the small-scale disc. The disc is sticky: the shock is radiative and pinned to the disc. This regime requires a sufficiently high accretion rate (see Section 2.3). A similar behaviour (held-down shock at high $`\dot{M}`$) was found for spherical accretion onto a neutron star (Shapiro & Salpeter 1975).

(ii) The small-scale disc has a modest angular momentum and a high radial velocity. The centrifugal barrier does not prevent accretion and matter is swallowed by the black hole in a steady regime. The effective throat of the black hole has a large radius of $`2r_g`$: the bottleneck for accretion is at $`2r_g`$ (see Fig. 2). This relativistic effect makes the accretion easier and allows the fast disc radius to be as large as $`13.6r_g27GM/c^2`$ (in Newtonian gravity it would be five times smaller, see Section 5.2).

The fast disc is a sticky caustic in a freely falling flow and in this respect it resembles the Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton (BHL) accretion (Bondi & Hoyle 1944). In their case, accretion proceeds along a one-dimensional caustic called the accretion line. The accretion line is fed at each point by matter from an initially plane-parallel flow which is axisymmetric and has zero net angular momentum. In our case, the accretion disc is fed by an asymptotically isotropic inflow with a non-zero net angular momentum. In contrast to the BHL accretion line, the radial momentum of matter impinging the disc is directed inwards. As a result, we do not have the degenerate stagnation radius that exists in the BHL problem and leads to an infinite number of possible solutions.

The fast disc is crucially different from the standard disc in many respects:

1. The fast disc forms in accretion flows with a net angular momentum $`\overline{l}_z<2r_gc`$.
2. The disc is small-scale, $`10r_g`$.
3. The disc is inviscid and accretes supersonically.
4. The energy release in the disc is caused by the infall absorption.
5. Most of the energy is released inside $`3r_g`$.
6. The disc is essentially relativistic; it does not admit any Newtonian approximation.
7. The disc has a low mass and its optical depth is not much above unity.
8. The disc dynamics depends on the angular momentum distribution of the feeding infall.

### 6.2 The generated spectrum

As we argued in Section 1, small-scale discs are likely to form in wind-fed X-ray binaries and they are also possible in AGN. We now briefly discuss the expected X-ray spectrum emitted by the fast small-scale disc. First we note that discs with $`\dot{m}>1`$ ($`L>\eta L_\mathrm{E}`$) have optical depths $`\tau _\mathrm{T}>1`$. The emission then consists of two components: $`L_h`$ – the hard radiation from the top optically thin layer that radiates the vertical kinetic energy of the infall, and $`L_s`$ – the radiation produced inside the optically thick disc where the horizontal velocities of the infall and the disc get equalised (see Section 2.3). Since $`L_s`$ comes out from the optically thick material, it is mostly soft radiation. By contrast, $`L_h`$ is generated by unsaturated Comptonization in the hot layer with the electron temperature $`kT_e100`$ keV (see eq. 12). The Comptonized X-rays have a standard power-law spectrum with a break at $`100`$ keV. The soft component $`L_s`$ is the source of seed photons for Comptonization in the hot layer.

The expected two-component spectrum is reminiscent of the observed spectra in galactic black hole sources and AGN (see Zdziarski 1999 for a review). The observed spectra are well fitted by two phenomenological models: (i) a hot accretion disc surrounded by a cold gaseous ring or (ii) a hot corona atop a cold disc. Both models are usually considered as modifications of the standard $`\alpha `$-disc in which the energy is released as a result of viscous stresses in a flow with high angular momentum (see Beloborodov 1999 for a review). The small-scale disc studied here generates a similar spectrum and it may provide a preferable explanation of the observed spectra in some cases. In general, a Comptonised spectrum is degenerate, i.e. it is insensitive to the heating mechanism and/or the accretion dynamics. Detailed studies of the spectrum features such as the Fe K$`\alpha `$ line and the Compton reflection bump from the optically thick disc might help to break the degeneracy.

### 6.3 Issues for further study

1. Exact calculations of the emitted X-ray spectrum require detailed modelling of radiative transfer in the post-shock plasma.
2. At high $`\dot{M}`$, the quasi-spherical infall gets so optically thick that it will trap the inner radiation and tend to advect it into the BH (Begelman 1978). The trapping becomes efficient at $`\dot{m}>10`$, when the time-scale of radiative diffusion through the infall is longer than the accretion time-scale. The corresponding reduction of the observed luminosity and the impact on the X-ray spectrum should be taken into account.
3. Throughout the paper, we assumed that the BH has a small spin. The similar problem can be solved for a rotating black hole.
4. We did not consider here the case $`l>l_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ where accretion is stopped by the centrifugal barrier. At high $`l`$, the fast disc should transform into the standard accretion disc. This transition will be studied elsewhere (Beloborodov & Illarionov, in preparation).

## Acknowledgments

We thank J. Poutanen and R. Svensson for comments on the manuscript and A.G. Doroshkevich for discussions. This work was supported by the Swedish Natural Science Research Council, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Scientific Research, and RFBR grant 00-02-16135.

## Appendix A Conservation laws

The barion conservation law reads $`_k(\rho u^k)=0`$ where $`_i`$ is the covariant derivative in Schwarzschild space-time, $`\rho `$ is matter density in its rest frame, $`u^i=\mathrm{d}x^i/\mathrm{d}\lambda `$ is matter four-velocity, $`\lambda `$ is proper time, and $`x^i`$ are Schwarzschild coordinates. For the flow in the thin disc $`u^\theta =0`$, so that $`u^i=(u^t,u^r,0,u^\phi )`$. The infall has 4-velocity $`\widehat{u}^i`$ and comoving density $`\widehat{\rho }`$.

In coordinates $`x^i`$, the barion conservation law takes the form (e.g. Landau & Lifshitz 1975)

$$\frac{1}{\sqrt{g}}\frac{}{x^k}\left(\sqrt{g}\rho u^k\right)=0,$$
(37)
where $`g`$ is the determinant of the metric. The non-zero components of Schwarzschild metric in the equatorial plane are $`g_{tt}=(1r_g/r)c^2`$, $`g_{rr}=r/(rr_g)`$, and $`g_{\theta \theta }=g_{\phi \phi }=r^2`$. Then $`\sqrt{g}=r^2`$. Taking into account that the disc is steady, $`/t=0`$, and axisymmetric, $`/\phi =0`$, there are two terms in equation (A1), with $`r`$ and $`\theta `$derivatives. Integrating (A1) over $`\theta `$ between the two surfaces of the disc, one gets

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}\dot{M}}{\mathrm{d}r}=4\pi r^2\widehat{\rho }\widehat{u}^\theta ,\dot{M}2\pi r\mathrm{\Sigma }u^r.$$
(38)
Here $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=\rho \sqrt{g_{\theta \theta }}\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$ is the surface density of the disc (measured in its rest frame), $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta =2H/r`$ is the angular thickness of the disc.

The energy and momentum conservation reads $`_iT_k^i=0`$ where $`T_k^i`$ is the stress-energy tensor. In coordinates $`x^i`$ this equation reads (Landau & Lifshitz 1975)

$$\frac{1}{\sqrt{g}}\frac{}{x^k}\left(\sqrt{g}T_i^k\right)=\frac{1}{2}\frac{g_{kl}}{x^i}T^{kl}.$$
(39)
The disc internal energy and pressure are small (heat is radiated away) and we neglect their contribution to $`T_k^i`$. We also neglect viscous stresses. $`T_k^i`$ then takes the simple form

$`T_k^i=\rho c^2u^iu_k.`$
Analogously, the stress-energy tensor of the infall through the disc surface is $`T_k^i=\widehat{\rho }c^2\widehat{u}^i\widehat{u}_k`$. The stress-energy tensor associated with the vertical radiation flux from the disc is $`T_k^i=u^iq_k+u_kq^i`$ where $`q^i`$ is the four-flux vector (e.g. Misner et al. 1973). Performing vertical integration across the disc and using equation (A2), we get

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}r}\left(\dot{M}u_i\right)\widehat{u}_i\frac{\mathrm{d}\dot{M}}{\mathrm{d}r}\frac{2\pi F}{c^2}ru_i=\frac{1}{2}\frac{g_{kl}}{x^i}u^ku^l\frac{\dot{M}}{u^r}.$$
(40)
Here $`F=(\mathrm{d}L/\mathrm{d}r)(c^2/u_t2\pi r)`$ is the radiation flux from the two faces of the disc (measured in the rest frame of the accreting matter).

For $`x^i=t`$ and $`x^i=\phi `$ equation (A4) states the conservation of energy, $`E=u_t`$, and angular momentum, $`j=u_\phi `$, respectively, and in both cases the right-hand-side vanishes. The radiative term on the left hand-side is $`L/\dot{M}c^21`$ smaller compared to the other two terms and it can be neglected in the conservation law of angular momentum.

For $`x^i=r`$, the right-hand-side in eqiation (A4) is non-zero; simple algebra (using $`u_tu^t+u_ru^r+u_\phi u^\phi =c^2`$) gives

$`{\displaystyle \frac{g_{kl}}{r}}u^ku^l={\displaystyle \frac{r_gc^2}{r(rr_g)}}{\displaystyle \frac{2r_g}{r^2}}u_r^2+{\displaystyle \frac{(2r3r_g)}{r^3(rr_g)}}u_\phi ^2.`$
Substituting this relation into (A4) and neglecting the radiative term, we get equation (21).

## Appendix B The luminosity capture by the black hole

Assume that each element of the disc $`\mathrm{d}S`$ emits radiation isotropically in the rest frame of the accreting matter. Let $`L_c`$ be the luminosity of $`\mathrm{d}S`$ measured in the rest frame, $`L_{\mathrm{loc}}`$ – the luminosity of $`\mathrm{d}S`$ measured by the local stationary observer (LSO), $`𝜷`$ – the local disc velocity measured by the LSO (in units of $`c`$), and $`\gamma =(1\beta ^2)^{1/2}`$. For a steady disc we have the relation (see e.g. Rybicki & Lightman 1979, chapter 4.8)

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}L_{\mathrm{loc}}}{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Omega }}=\frac{L_c}{4\pi \gamma ^4(1𝜷𝛀)^3},$$
(41)
where $`𝛀`$ is the unit vector specifying direction of an emitted photon in the LSO frame and $`\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the element of the solid angle. The local luminosity emitted in $`4\pi `$, as measured by LSO, is equal to the rest frame luminosity, $`L_{\mathrm{loc}}=L_c`$.

Consider the local tetrade $`(e_{(t)}^i,e_{(r)}^i,e_{(\theta )}^i,e_{(\phi )}^i)`$ and let $`(\beta ^{(r)},0,\beta ^{(\phi )})`$ and $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^{(r)},\mathrm{\Omega }^{(\theta )},\mathrm{\Omega }^{(\phi )})`$ be the tetrade components of $`𝜷`$ and $`𝛀`$, respectively. The $`\beta ^{(\alpha )}`$ ($`\alpha =1,2,3`$) is related to the four-velocity of the disc, $`u^i`$, by $`\beta ^{(\alpha )}=(u^\alpha /u^t)(g_{\alpha \alpha }/g_{tt})^{1/2}`$, and $`\gamma =u^t(g_{tt})^{1/2}`$. The $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(\alpha )}`$ can be written as $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(r)}=\mathrm{cos}\widehat{\theta }`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(\theta )}=\mathrm{sin}\widehat{\theta }\mathrm{sin}\widehat{\phi }`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(\phi )}=\mathrm{sin}\widehat{\theta }\mathrm{cos}\widehat{\phi }`$, and $`\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Omega }=\mathrm{sin}\widehat{\theta }\mathrm{d}\widehat{\theta }\mathrm{d}\widehat{\phi }`$. Equation (27) now takes the form

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}L_{\mathrm{loc}}}{\mathrm{d}\widehat{\theta }\mathrm{d}\widehat{\phi }}}={\displaystyle \frac{L_{\mathrm{loc}}\mathrm{sin}\widehat{\theta }}{4\pi \gamma ^4[1+\beta ^{(r)}\mathrm{cos}\widehat{\theta }\beta ^{(\phi )}\mathrm{sin}\widehat{\theta }\mathrm{cos}\widehat{\phi }]^3}}.`$
The black hole absorbs radiation emitted within a cone $`\widehat{\theta }<\widehat{\theta }_{\mathrm{abs}}(r)`$ (see Misner et al. 1973), where

$`\mathrm{sin}^2\widehat{\theta }_{\mathrm{abs}}={\displaystyle \frac{27r_g^2}{4r^2}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{r_g}{r}}\right).`$
$`\widehat{\theta }_{\mathrm{abs}}<\pi /2`$ at $`r>(3/2)r_g`$ and $`\widehat{\theta }_{\mathrm{abs}}>\pi /2`$ at $`r<(3/2)r_g`$. At $`r=r_g`$, $`\widehat{\theta }_{\mathrm{abs}}=\pi `$, i.e. all radiation is absorbed.

The captured fraction of radiation emitted at a radius $`r`$ is

$`\kappa (r)={\displaystyle _0^{2\pi }}{\displaystyle _0^{\widehat{\theta }_{\mathrm{abs}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}\widehat{\theta }\mathrm{d}\widehat{\theta }\mathrm{d}\widehat{\phi }}{4\pi \gamma ^4[1+\beta ^{(r)}\mathrm{cos}\widehat{\theta }\beta ^{(\phi )}\mathrm{sin}\widehat{\theta }\mathrm{cos}\widehat{\phi }]^3}}.`$ (42)
Here $`\beta ^{(r)}=u^r/E`$, $`\beta ^{(\phi )}=(cj/rE)(1r_g/r)^{1/2}`$, and $`\gamma =(E/c^2)(1r_g/r)^{1/2}`$. The released and captured power from $`\mathrm{d}S`$ as measured at infinity is $`L_{\mathrm{loc}}(g_{tt})`$ and $`\kappa L_{\mathrm{loc}}(g_{tt})`$, respectively. The resulting radial distribution of the observed luminosity is

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}L_{\mathrm{obs}}}{\mathrm{d}r}}={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}L}{\mathrm{d}r}}\left[1\kappa (r)\right].`$ (43)
Equation (B3) is exact for an optically thin disc only. An optically thick disc partly intercepts its own radiation owing to the gravitational bending of light near the black hole, and reemits this radiation. As a result of this self-illumination, the radial distribution of the disc luminosity changes. We here neglect these effects and use equations (B2) and (B3) to estimate the captured luminosity.