ABSTRACT. We analyze the time dependence of fluid variables in general relativistic, magnetohydrodynamic simulations of accretion flows onto a black hole with dimensionless spin parameter a/M = 0.9. We consider both the cases where the angular momentum of the accretion material is aligned with the black hole spin axis (an untilted flow) and where it is misaligned by 15° (a tilted flow). In comparison to the untilted simulation, the tilted simulation exhibits a clear excess of inertial variability, that is, variability at frequencies below the local radial epicyclic frequency. We further study the radial structure of this inertial-like power by focusing on a radially extended band at 118(M/10 M )^–1 Hz found in each of the three analyzed fluid variables. The three-dimensional density structure at this frequency suggests that the power is a composite oscillation whose dominant components are an over dense clump corotating with the background flow, a low-order inertial wave, and a low-order inertial-acoustic wave. Our results provide preliminary confirmation of earlier suggestions that disk tilt can be an important excitation mechanism for inertial waves.

Key words: accretion, accretion disks; black hole physics; MHD; turbulence; waves; X-rays: binaries

Print publication: Issue 1 (2009 November 20)
Received 2009 May 6, accepted for publication 2009 October 13
Published 2009 November 4