Multi-criticality and related bifurcation in accretion discs around non-rotating black holes: an analytical study

Abstract

Low angular momentum, general relativistic, axially symmetric accretion of hydrodynamic fluid onto Schwarzschild black holes may undergo more than one critical transition. To obtain the stationary integral solutions corresponding to such multi-critical accretion flow, one needs to employ numerical solutions of the corresponding fluid dynamics equations. In the present work, we develop a completely analytical solution scheme which may be used to find several trans-critical flow behaviours of aforementioned accretion, without explicitly solving the flow equations numerically. We study all possible geometric configurations of the flow profile, governed by all possible thermodynamic equations of state. We use Sturm’s chain algorithm to find out how many physically acceptable critical points the accretion flow can have, and discuss the transition from the mono to the multi-critical flow profile, and related bifurcation phenomena. We thus illustrate, completely analytically, the application of certain aspects of the dynamical systems theory in the field of large-scale astrophysical flow under the influence of strong gravity. Our work may possibly be generalized to calculate the maximal number of equilibrium points certain autonomous dynamical systems can have in general.