Implementing Radiative Transfer in the Monte-Carlo Method of Simulating Accretion Disks of Supermassive Black Holes

Author:
Seyfritz, Louis, Astronomy, University of Virginia
Advisor:
Davis, Shane, AS-Astronomy (ASTR), University of Virginia
Abstract:

We study a new method in simulating the accretion disks of black holes with Athena++, focusing on solving the radiative transfer equation in the main part of the code, inside of the Problem Generator file. After some exposition of our method of computing the geodesics, and our solution to the radiative transfer equation, we will explain our first attempts at the model followed by the resulting intensity plots of supermassive black holes generated by the new version of the simulator, relying less heavily on post-processing. This work considers the case of a thin disk, which has effects on our assumptions of temperature and opacity in the midplane. We will end our study by a discussion of further applications of this implementation to Athena++.

Degree:
BS (Bachelor of Science)
Keywords:
Supermassive Black hole, Accretion Disk, Athena++, Radiative Transfer
Language:
English
Issued Date:
2023/05/15