Three-Dimensional Simulations of Inflows Irradiated by a Precessing Accretion Disk in Active Galactic Nuclei: Formation of Outflows

Abstract

We present three-dimensional (3-D) hydrodynamical simulations of gas flows in the vicinity of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) powered by a precessing accretion disk. We consider the effects of the radiation force from such a disk on its environment on a relatively large scale (up to ~10 pc. We implicitly include the precessing disk by forcing the disk radiation field to precess around a symmetry axis with a given period ($P$) and a tilt angle ($Θ$). We study time evolution of the flows irradiated by the disk, and investigate basic dependencies of the flow morphology, mass flux, angular momentum on different combinations of $Θ$ and $P$. We find the gas flow settles into a configuration with two components, (1) an equatorial inflow and (2) a bipolar inflow/outflow with the outflow leaving the system along the poles (the directions of disk normals). However, the flow does not always reach a steady state. We find that the maximum outflow velocity and the kinetic outflow power at the outer boundary can be reduced significantly with increasing $Θ$. We also find that of the mass inflow rate across the inner boundary does not change significantly with increasing $Θ$. (Abbreviated)

Accepted for publication in ApJ. 15 pages, 7 figures. A version with full resolution figures can be downloaded from http://www.physics.unlv.edu/~rk/preprint/precess.pdf