Electromagnetic and gravitational signatures of accretion into black holes

Abstract

In this paper, the gravitational and electromagnetic signals due to accretion of charged fluids into a Schwarzschild black hole is revisited. We set up the perturbed Einstein equations and Maxwell equations coupled to the fluid equations on a stationary black hole as a system of differential equations that can be integrated as an initial value problem. We numerically investigate cases in which we varied the properties of the fluid. Our scenario may provide an electromagnetic counterpart to gravitational waves in many situations of interest, enabling easier extraction and verification of gravitational waveforms from gravitational wave detection. We find that the features of the resulting electromagnetic signals depend on the properties and dynamics of the flow.