Re-accretion of wind and supernova matter onto a central black hole.

• Thesis title in Czech: Reakrece hmoty hvězdných větrů a supernov na černou díru.
• Thesis title in English: Re-accretion of wind and supernova matter onto a central black hole.
• Key words: mezihvězdné bubliny|černé díry|supernovy|hydrodynamika|numerické metody
• English key words: ISM: bubbles|stars: black holes|supernovae: general|hydrodynamics|methods: numerical
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2023/2024
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Astronomical Institute of Charles University (32-AUUK)
• Supervisor: Mgr. Richard Wünsch, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 10.11.2023
• Date of assignment: 14.11.2023
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 14.04.2025
• Date and time of defence: 10.06.2025 09:00
• Date of electronic submission: 29.04.2025
• Date of submission of printed version: 30.04.2025
• Date of proceeded defence: 10.06.2025
• Opponents: RNDr. Ondřej Chrenko, Ph.D.

Guidelines

Stellar winds from massive stars lead to the formation of wind-blown bubbles composed of a cavity filled with wind matter and a dense and thin shell of swept-up interstellar matter (Weaver et al., 1977). The size of the bubble is determined by both, the energetics of the stellar wind and the pressure associated to the interstellar medium. After a massive star that ends its life as a core-collapse supernova (ccSN), a blast wave (BW) collides with the encompassing swept-up shell. The BW is typically unable to traverse the shell and thus the supernova remnant is confined to roughly the size of the wind-blown bubble (Tenorio-Tagle et al., 1990; Haid et al., 2016; Martinez-González et al., 2019). Not only that, but ccSNe leave behind either a neutron star, or a stellar mass black hole (BH). However, progenitors with masses above ~80 Solar masses end their lives as pair-instability supernovae, where the whole star is obliterated and thus stellar-mass BHs with masses in the interval 50-130 Solar masses were thought unlikely to exist_(e.g. Belczynski et al., 2016, Barack, L. et al. 2019). However, LIGO/VIRGO detections of gravitational waves originating from the coalescence of BHs with inferred masses falling in that interval (LIGO & Virgo Collaborations, 2020, 2021], Phys. Rev.Lett.125(2020), 101102), have challenged our understanding of stellar-mass BH formation and evolution.

The aim of this work is to investigate if the BHs left behind after the explosion of progenitors with masses close to ~80 Solar masses are able to efficiently re-accrete the wind and supernova matter within highly-pressurized wind-blown bubbles, and form black holes with masses in excess of 50 Solar masses. The student will use publicly available hydrodynamic code Flash (Fryxell et al., 2000) and home-grown modules that follow the evolution of wind-blown bubbles and supernova remnants (Wünsch et al., 2017), and calculate the gravitational potential associated to the gas and the central stellar-mass BH (Wünsch et al., 2018).

References

Barack, L.; Cardoso, V.; Nissanke, S.; Sotiriou, T. P.;  et al., 2019, CQGra 36, 143001
Belczynski K., Heger A., Gladysz W. et al. 2016 A&A 594, A97
Fryxell, B.; Olson, K.; Ricker, P. et al., 2000, ApJS, 131 273
Haid, S.; Walch, S.; Naab, T.; Seifried, D.; Mackey, J.; Gatto, A. 2016 MNRAS 460, 2962
Martínez-González, S.; Wünsch, R.; Silich, S.; Tenorio-Tagle, G.; Palouš, J.; Ferrara, A.  2019 ApJ 887, 198
Tenorio-Tagle, G.; Bodenheimer, P.; Franco, J.; Rozyczka, M. 1990, MNRAS, 244, 563
The LIGO Scientific Collaboration; the Virgo Collaboration; 2020 Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 101102
The LIGO Scientific Collaboration ; the Virgo Collaboration ; the KAGRA Collaboration; 2023; arXiv:2111.03606
Weaver, R.; McCray, R.; Castor, J.; Shapiro, P.; Moore, R. 1977 ApJ 218, 377
Wünsch, R.; Palouš, J.; Tenorio-Tagle, G.; Ehlerová, S. 2017 ApJ 835, 60
Wünsch, R.; Walch, S.; Dinnbier, F.; Whitworth, A. 2018 MNRAS 475, 3393