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1. Bridging Scales in Black Hole Accretion and Feedback: Magnetized Bondi Accretion in 3D GRMHD

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad1048  

   Cho 조, Hyerin 혜린; Prather, Ben S.; Narayan, Ramesh; Natarajan, Priyamvada; Su, Kung-Yi; Ricarte, Angelo; Chatterjee, Koushik (December 2023, The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   Abstract Fueling and feedback couple supermassive black holes (SMBHs) to their host galaxies across many orders of magnitude in spatial and temporal scales, making this problem notoriously challenging to simulate. We use a multi-zone computational method based on the general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) code KHARMA that allows us to span 7 orders of magnitude in spatial scale, to simulate accretion onto a non-spinning SMBH from an external medium with a Bondi radius ofR_B≈ 2 × 10⁵GM_•/c², whereM_•is the SMBH mass. For the classic idealized Bondi problem, spherical gas accretion without magnetic fields, our simulation results agree very well with the general relativistic analytic solution. Meanwhile, when the accreting gas is magnetized, the SMBH magnetosphere becomes saturated with a strong magnetic field. The density profile varies as ∼r⁻¹rather thanr^−3/2and the accretion rate $\dot{M}$is consequently suppressed by over 2 orders of magnitude below the Bondi rate ${\dot{M}}_{\mathrm{B}}$. We find continuous energy feedback from the accretion flow to the external medium at a level of $\sim {10}^{-2}\dot{M}{c}^2\sim 5\times {10}^{-5}{\dot{M}}_{\mathrm{B}}{c}^2$. Energy transport across these widely disparate scales occurs via turbulent convection triggered by magnetic field reconnection near the SMBH. Thus, strong magnetic fields that accumulate on horizon scales transform the flow dynamics far from the SMBH and naturally explain observed extremely low accretion rates compared to the Bondi rate, as well as at least part of the energy feedback. 

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2. Magnetically Driven Neutron-rich Ejecta Unleashed: Global 3D Neutrino–General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Collapsars Probe the Conditions for r -process Nucleosynthesis

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adc694  

   Issa, Danat; Gottlieb, Ore; Metzger, Brian D; Jacquemin-Ide, Jonatan; Liska, Matthew; Foucart, Francois; Halevi, Goni; Tchekhovskoy, Alexander (May 2025, The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   Abstract Collapsars—rapidly rotating stellar cores that form black holes—can power gamma-ray bursts and are proposed to be key contributors to the production of heavy elements in the Universe via the rapid neutron capture process (r-process). Previous neutrino-transport collapsar simulations have been unable to unbind neutron-rich material from the disk. However, these simulations have not included sufficiently strong magnetic fields and the black hole (BH), both of which are essential for launching mass outflows. We presentνh-amr, a novel neutrino-transport general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (νGRMHD) code, which we use to perform the first 3D globalνGRMHD collapsar simulations. We find a self-consistent formation of a weakly magnetized dense accretion disk, which has sufficient time to neutronize. Eventually, substantial magnetic flux accumulates near the BH, becomes dynamically important, leads to a magnetically arrested disk (MAD), and unbinds some of the neutron-rich material. However, the strong flux also hinders accretion, lowers density, and increases neutrino-cooling timescale, which prevents further disk neutronization. Typical collapsar progenitors with mass accretion rates, $\dot{M}\sim 0.1-1M_{\odot }{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$, do not produce significant neutron-rich (Y_e < 0.25) ejecta. However, we find that MADs at higher mass accretion rates, $\dot{M}\gtrsim \text{few}{M}_{\odot }{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$(e.g., for more centrally concentrated progenitors), can unbindM_ej ≲ M_⊙of neutron-rich ejecta. The outflows inflate a shocked cocoon that mixes with the infalling neutron-poor stellar gas and raises the final outflowY_e; however, the finalr-process yield may be determined earlier at the point of neutron capture freeze-out. Future work will explore under what conditions more typical collapsar engines becomer-process factories. 

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3. Test of lepton flavor universality with a measurement of $R\left(D^{*}\right)$ using hadronic $B$ tagging at the Belle II experiment

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.110.072020  

   Adachi, I; Adamczyk, K; Aggarwal, L; Ahmed, H; Aihara, H; Akopov, N; Aloisio, A; Anh_Ky, N; Asner, D M; Atmacan, H; et al (October 2024, Physical Review D)

   The ratio of branching fractions $R\left(D^{*}\right)=\mathcal{B}(\overline{B}\to D^{*}{\tau }^{-}{\overline{\nu }}_{\tau })/\mathcal{B}(\overline{B}\to D^{*}{\ell }^{-}{\overline{\nu }}_{\ell })$, where $\ell$is an electron or muon, is measured using a Belle II data sample with an integrated luminosity of $189{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$at the SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy $e^{+}{e}^{-}$collider. Data is collected at the $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(4\mathrm{S}\right)$resonance, and one $B$meson in the $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(4\mathrm{S}\right)\to B\overline{B}$decay is fully reconstructed in hadronic decay modes. The accompanying signal $B$meson is reconstructed as $\overline{B}\to D^{*}{\tau }^{-}{\overline{\nu }}_{\tau }$using leptonic $\tau$decays. The normalization decay, $\overline{B}\to D^{*}{\ell }^{-}{\overline{\nu }}_{\ell }$, produces the same observable final-state particles. The ratio of branching fractions is extracted in a simultaneous fit to two signal-discriminating variables in both channels and yields $R\left(D^{*}\right)={0.262}_{-0.039}^{+0.041}\left(\mathrm{stat}{)}_{-0.032}^{+0.035}\right(\mathrm{syst})$. This result is consistent with the current world average and with Standard Model predictions. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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4. Jets with a Twist: The Emergence of FR0 Jets in a 3D GRMHD Simulation of Zero-angular-momentum Black Hole Accretion

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad0974  

   Lalakos, Aretaios; Tchekhovskoy, Alexander; Bromberg, Omer; Gottlieb, Ore; Jacquemin-Ide, Jonatan; Liska, Matthew; Zhang, Haocheng (March 2024, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract Spinning supermassive black holes (BHs) in active galactic nuclei magnetically launch relativistic collimated outflows, or jets. Without angular momentum supply, such jets are thought to perish within 3 orders of magnitude in distance from the BH, well before reaching kiloparsec scales. We study the survival of such jets at the largest scale separation to date, via 3D general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of rapidly spinning BHs immersed into uniform zero-angular-momentum gas threaded by a weak vertical magnetic field. We place the gas outside the BH sphere of influence, or the Bondi radius, chosen to be much larger than the BH gravitational radius,R_B= 10³R_g. The BH develops dynamically important large-scale magnetic fields, forms a magnetically arrested disk (MAD), and launches relativistic jets that propagate well outsideR_Band suppress BH accretion to 1.5% of the Bondi rate, ${\dot{M}}_{\mathrm{B}}$. Thus, low-angular-momentum accretion in the MAD state can form large-scale jets in Fanaroff–Riley (FR) type I and II galaxies. Subsequently, the disk shrinks and exits the MAD state: barely a disk (BAD), it rapidly precesses, whips the jets around, globally destroys them, and lets 5%–10% of ${\dot{M}}_{\mathrm{B}}$reach the BH. Thereafter, the disk starts rocking back and forth by angles 90°–180°: the rocking accretion disk (RAD) launches weak intermittent jets that spread their energy over a large area and suppress BH accretion to ≲2% ${\dot{M}}_{\mathrm{B}}$. Because the BAD and RAD states tangle up the jets and destroy them well insideR_B, they are promising candidates for the more abundant, but less luminous, class of FR0 galaxies. 

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5. Optical and Radio Analysis of Systematically Classified Broad-lined Type Ic Supernovae from the Zwicky Transient Facility

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad7fde  

   Srinivasaragavan, Gokul P; Yang, Sheng; Anand, Shreya; Sollerman, Jesper; Ho, Anna_Y Q; Corsi, Alessandra; Cenko, S Bradley; Perley, Daniel; Schulze, Steve; Sanchez-Fleming, Marquice; et al (November 2024, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We study a magnitude-limited sample of 36 broad-lined type Ic supernovae (SNe Ic-BL) from the Zwicky Transient Facility Bright Transient Survey (detected between 2018 March and 2021 August), which is the largest systematic study of SNe Ic-BL done in literature thus far. We present the light curves (LCs) for each of the SNe and analyze the shape of the LCs to derive empirical parameters, along with the explosion epochs for every event. The sample has an average absolute peak magnitude in therband of ${\overline{\mathit{M}}}_{\mathrm{r},\max }=-18.51\pm 0.15$mag. Using spectra obtained around peak light, we compute expansion velocities from the Feii5169 Å line for each event with high enough signal-to-noise ratio spectra, and find an average value of $\overline{v_{\mathrm{ph}}}=16,100\pm 1100$km s⁻¹. We also compute bolometric LCs, study the blackbody temperature and radii evolution over time, and derive the explosion properties of the SNe. The explosion properties of the sample have average values of ${\overline{\mathit{M}}}_{\mathrm{Ni}}={0.37}_{-0.06}^{+0.08}{\mathit{M}}_{\odot }$, ${\overline{\mathit{M}}}_{\mathrm{ej}}={2.45}_{-0.41}^{+0.47}{\mathit{M}}_{\odot }$, and ${\overline{\mathit{E}}}_{\mathrm{K}}=\left({4.02}_{-1.00}^{+1.37}\right)\times {10}^{51}$erg. Thirteen events have radio observations from the Very Large Array, with eight detections and five non-detections. We find that the populations that have radio detections and radio non-detections are indistinct from one another with respect to their optically inferred explosion properties, and there are no statistically significant correlations present between the events’ radio luminosities and optically inferred explosion properties. This provides evidence that the explosion properties derived from optical data alone cannot give inferences about the radio properties of SNe Ic-BL and likely their relativistic jet formation mechanisms. 

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