Random walks around black holes and low-frequency X-ray variability
The stochastic dynamics of a grain embedded within a turbulent fluid subject to strong gravitational fields can be formulated as a random walk on a Riemannian manifold. Such curvature-weighted walks provide a framework to model the intrinsic variability of accretion onto compact objects. By solving the relevant Fokker-Planck equation on a black hole background, we find the counterintuitive result that the escape probability of a grain is actually higher compared to flat space. This is a consequence of the stretching of radial cells near the event horizon: there is a greater spatial volume for the particle to wander through before being captured. By simulating a large number of grain trajectories, initially distributed on concentric shells with a density profile set by the thin-disc structure equations, we also study particle fluxes through the horizon. Shallower spectral indices emerge at low frequencies relative to flat space, primarily due to time dilation, and steeper ones at high frequencies. We find that Schwarzschild-weighted spectra broadly match observations of low-frequency X-ray variability from systems like Cygnus X-1 in their hard state, suggesting that geometric drifts may be important in describing stochastic accretion processes.
展开 ▾黑洞周围的随机游走与低频X射线变异性 · 通过建立黑洞背景湍流中颗粒的随机行走模型并求解福克-普朗克方程与模拟轨迹,发现逃逸概率高于平直空间且光谱与观测匹配,从而解释了低频X射线变异性
预印本 2026-07-16 · 接收 2026-06-25 · 刊出 2026-07-13 · 收录 2026-07-18