Astronomy & Astrophysics manuscript no.

output c
ESO 2020
October 30, 2020

Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou1,2,?

1
Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics, Academy of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece
2
Department of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics, Faculty of Physics, University of Athens
Received ? ?, ?; accepted ? ?, ?

ABSTRACT

We present our study and show our results about accretion disks around stellar black holes. We build and solve the relativistic radiative
transfer equations, or find suitable solutions where this is not possible, and examine particle trajectories in the environment or moving
with the accretion disk. The moving particles may have various velocity profiles and absorb thermal radiation from the hot disk itself.
We consider six different disk models, four opaque and two semi-opaque and various velocity profiles, depending on the target’s
location in each system. We then describe and explain the five families of codes written for our newer expanded work and present
various images and results for photon trajectories, radiation forces, black hole images, spin estimation and particle trajectories that
also include radiation contributions.////
Key words. accretion, accretion disks – black hole physics – radiative transfer – relativistic processes

1. Introduction where Vφ is the target’s azimuthal velocity, c the speed of light,

Black holes have always been considered exotic and mysteri-
ous objects and were thus always a field of interest for many
researches. Especially the past few years after the observation
of gravitational waves including black holes as progenitors or
remnants, these objects were once again near the center of atten-
tion of the scientific community. Pictures of these objects, their
environments and their progenitors have since been studied and
discussed in length and suggestions were made on new possi-
ble approaches. Something however, that is often neglected and
sidelined, could prove to be of great importance to all the objects
involved, as well as their surroundings: radiation.
Radiation along with its pressure, appear negligible in set-
tings so dense and energetic as black holes, but one should keep
in mind that objects like these, are accompanied by accretion
disks. These accretion disks are usually of a temperature high
enough to produce X-rays and large numbers of photons of this
energy cannot be deemed unimportant or negligible at any case.
Noticeable effects of the solar radiation, far inferior than a
black hole’s X-ray radiation, were first described by J. H. Poynt-
ing (Poynting 1903). Years later, H. P. Robertson (Robertson
1937) properly explained what is now known as the Poynting–
Robertson effect and cleared misconceptions that had puzzled
many great scientists, such as J. Larmor for years. This effect
is also called a drag because, even though the solar photons are
emitted radially outwards, they cause the dust grains in orbit ab-
sorbing them, to slowly brake and infall onto the Sun, the Earth
or any other close enough massive object. This force is of purely
relativistic origin and is proportional to the absorbing object’s
azimuthal velocity. A simple non relativistic formula can calcu-
late this force to good accuracy as
φ Vφ LσT Vφ
fPR = − frad
r
=− , (1)
c 4πr2 c2
?
email:leelamk@phys.uoa.gr
L the central object luminosity, σT the Thomson cross section
and r the target’s radial distance from the central object.
The purpose and the goal of this paper is to examine if radia-
tion effects and specifically the Poynting–Robertson drag acting
upon the hot accretion disk material, is enough to cause effects
on such objects that cannot be set aside and should regularly
be taken into consideration when studying objects of this kind.
If radiation forces are small enough, they could indeed be ig-
nored or perhaps simply introduce small corrections to such en-
vironments. If on the contrary, radiation forces and especially the
aforementioned radiation drag are of non-negligible magnitude,
then they must certainly be taken into account when examining
the stability and evolution of such disks.
Our intention is to investigate the very basis of the Cos-
mic Battery model, firstly presented in Contopoulos & Kazanas
1998, and to ascertain if the claims for the existence of enough
radiation to have effects on the disk material motion and equi-
librium can withstand a thorough study that takes into account
General Relativity and if in the end, these radiation forces are of
any significance.
Some of the first who studied radiation effects within Gen-
eral Relativity in environments relevant to the ones we wish to
study, are Abramowicz, Ellis, & Lanza 1990 and Miller & Lamb
1993, 1996, Lamb & Miller 1995. All the aforementioned papers
however, unlike our work, consider central sources of photons,
which in some cases are also rotating. A different approach on
relativistic radiation effects was followed by Bini et al. (2009,
2011, 2015), who have given interesting results. It is also worth
mentioning the studies of Sadowski
˛ et al. 2016 and Sadowski
˛
2016 that examine a variety of accretion disks and the effects of
radiation and magnetic fields, along with their feedbacks to these
systems.
After the previously mentioned first paper in 1998, the Cos-
mic Battery model was discussed and looked into by Bisnovatyi-
Kogan, Lovelace, & Belinski 2002 and then revisited and ex-
tended in Contopoulos, Kazanas, & Christodoulou 2006. Later
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on applications were looked into, where notable effects were ex- be denoted by Greek indices and space components by Latin in-
amined in relevant environments and topics such as the interac- dices.
tion of the Poynting–Robertson radiation and the Cosmic Battery
in X-ray binaries (Kylafis et al. 2012) and the re-positioning of
the inner edge of the accretion disk due to radiation (Contopou- 2.1. The Kerr Metric
los & Papadopoulos 2012). The BH and the spacetime it creates, can be fully described using
Finally, this work is a continuation of our previous research its mass M and its spin parameter a. The Kerr metric in Boyer –
shown in Koutsantoniou (2014) and published in Koutsantoniou Lindquist (t, φ, r, θ) coordinates is then given by
& Contopoulos (2014), where we work in environments in which
the radiation source is not central or spherical anymore, but in- ds2 = gαβ dxα dxβ =
stead it is the hot accretion disk orbiting the central compact
object. All our work so far is done using fully ray tracing codes, = −e2ν dt2 + e2ψ (dφ − ωdt)2 + e2µ1 dr2 + e2µ2 dθ2 , (2)
along with algorithms especially designed and written to deal
where
with such procedures. All the aforementioned codes and algo-
rithms were written by us in order to be fully aware of how the Σ∆ 2ψ Asin2 θ 2µ1 Σ
codes work, how they calculate the various quantities, to avoid e2ν = , e = , e = , e2µ2 = Σ , (3)
any "black box" components and to be able to redesign and im- A Σ ∆
prove the quality and speed of the codes. This was doubtlessly with
necessary since ray tracing, especially of this magnitude, is a
rather hard procedure and eminently time consuming. ∆ = r2 − 2Mr + a2 ,
The current paper also describes a great leap forward in both
the codes quality and effectiveness. The new integrations allow
us to use several different computers simultaneously, running Σ = r2 + a2 cos2 θ ,
codes and automatically saving and sharing the results. Includ-  2
ing a new process, we were able to increase the codes resolu- A = r2 + a2 − a2 ∆sin2 θ , (4)
tion by 25 − 625 times or in some cases even more, by at most
doubling the execution time. This allows us to run now a vastly and the spacetime angular velocity is given by
increased number of simulations compared to our previous work
gφt 2Mra
and instead of having a sole target at each disk’s innermost sta- ω=− = , (5)
ble circular orbit, hereafter ISCO, we spread absorbing targets gφφ A
throughout the various systems, inside the disk’s inner edge and
outside the disk’s outer edge and if the disk model allows it, also see Bardeen (1970) and Bardeen, Press, & Teukolsky (1972).
inside the disk. We additionally greatly extend by leaving the From the metric (2), one can determine the various charac-
equatorial plane and spreading the targets to all the sphere’s vol- teristic surfaces present around a rotating BH. The event horizon
ume from close to the vertical z-axis, all the way down to the arises from one of the poles of the grr component and is found at
equator. Finally, we should mention that in contrast to the vast the outermost root of the equation ∆ = 0:
majority of black hole studies, the fully ray tracing profile of our √
codes allows us to look very close to these objects. Even though revh = M + M 2 − a2 . (6)
this possibility makes ray tracing codes rather demanding, it al-
lows us to get images of the black hole and the accretion disk for The event horizon is thus a sphere of radius revh = 2M for a
radii ranging from to 1.25M for a rotating black hole, up to 25M nonrotating Schwarzschild BH and revh = M for a maximally
or more. rotating one. The second characteristic surface is the static limit
In this work, we start in §2 by providing the mathematical that constitutes the outer boundary surface of the ergosphere and
formulation necessary in order to set up and use the Kerr met- can be found at the point where the gtt component changes sign:
ric and the locally non-rotating frames and then the methods to
√
study particle trajectories and radiation effects. In §3 we present rergo = M + M 2 − a2 cos2 θ. (7)
the various models of disks used in our work and the accompa-
nying physics. In 4, we present and describe the five different Finally, a noteworthy set of radii are the equatorial circular orbits
families of codes written for our studies and show many new for massive particles and in particular the ISCO, that is given by
results from these studies. Finally, in 5 we summarize our con-
clusions about the results and discuss the possibilities of future h p i
rIS CO = M 3 + Z2 ∓ (3 − Z1 ) (3 + Z1 + 2Z2 ) , (8)
extensions.
where
2. Mathematical Formulation
!1/3 "
a2
#
a 1/3  a 1/3
We assume that the immediate environment around a rotating Z1 = 1 + 1 − 2 1+ + 1−
and accreting black hole, hereafter BH, can be adequately well M M M
described using the Kerr metric. This suggests that the spacetime r
is determined by the central compact object that is axisymmet- 3a2
ric, uncharged and possibly rotating. We also assume that the test Z2 = + Z12 . (9)
M2
particle’s presence and motion do not affect the spacetime form
or the stress-energy tensor. We will hereafter use the geometrized where the upper sign refers to direct and the lower sign to ret-
unit system in which c = G = 1 and assume the Einstein notation rograde orbits. The ISCO starts from a value of rIS CO = 6M for
for summation over double indices. Spacetime components will a = 0 and for a = M, reaches rIS CO = M for a direct orbit.
Article number, page 2 of 41
 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

2.2. Locally nonrotating frames dr p

Σ = ± Vr ,
dλ
The Kerr spacetime is stationary and axisymmetric but the cen-
tral object rotation introduces complexity in both the physics of dθ
Σ = ± Vθ ,
p
(12)
the problem and the mathematics required. First of all, the non- dλ
diagonality of the metric introduces cumbersome algebraic cal-
where the effective potentials are given by
culations when rising or lowering indices. In addition, physical
difficulties arise when examining locations within the static limit  
and throughout the ergosphere. This is due to the fact that, there T = r2 + a2 E − aL,
cannot be static Boyer – Lindquist (hereafter BL) observers at h i
these points, since the t basis vector becomes spacelike. Vr = T 2 − ∆ µ2 r2 + (L − aE)2 + Q ,
In order to simplify the calculations and remove various for-
mulation problems inside the ergosphere, we choose to intro- L2
"   #
duce a new set or observers and work in that new frame. The Vθ = Q − cos θ a µ − E +
2 2 2 2
, (13)
best choice of observers is one where said observers rotate with sin2 θ
the spacetime geometry at the point we wish to study. We thus and λ is an affine parameter for massless particles and λ = τ/µ
define the locally nonrotating frame (LNRF) or the zero angu- for massive particles, with τ the particle’s proper time.
lar momentum observer (ZAMO) at the point in question and The above form of the equations is compact and elegant but
describe the requested quantities using their projection on the hides various problems that appear when one attempts to solve
Minkowskian orthonormal frame of the local observer. If re- them. The system appears to be highly problematic during nu-
quired, we can then easily switch the calculated quantities from merical integration, since the presence of the square roots in the
the LNRF into the BL frame. Quantities calculated in the LNRF latter two equations cause the quick accumulation of errors near
are denoted by using hats over the component indices, e.g. uα̂ , the turning points. There are various solutions, such as reparame-
and quantities calculated in the BL frame are denoted by unhat- terization, in order to deal with this issue. In our work, we choose
ted indices, e.g. uα . The transformation tensor Eαµ̂ and Eµ̂α be- to work with the Hamiltonian and we transform the above system
tween the two frames has nonzero components accordingly. The new system of equations is then as follows:

ettˆ = eν , eφ̂t = −ωeψ , eφ̂φ = eψ , er̂r = eµ1 , eθ̂θ = eµ2 , dt 1 ∂

=− (Vr + ∆Vθ ) ,
dλ 2Σ∆ ∂pt
ettˆ = e−ν , eφtˆ = ωe−ν , eφφ̂ = e−ψ , err̂ = e−µ1 , eθθ̂ = e−µ2 . (10)
dφ 1 ∂
Vectors uα and uµ̂ , and tensors T αβ and T µ̂ν̂ are transformed fol- =− (Vr + ∆Vθ ) ,
dλ 2Σ∆ ∂pφ
lowing the equations
dr ∆
ua = eαµ̂ uµ̂ , uµ̂ = eµ̂α uα = pr ,
dλ Σ
T αβ = eαµ̂ eβν̂ T µ̂ν̂ , T µ̂ν̂ = eµ̂α eν̂β T αβ . (11) dθ 1
= pθ ,
dλ Σ
2.3. Particle trajectories d pt
= 0,
In order to study particle trajectories in Kerr spacetime, it is nec- dλ
essary to make full use of the particle’s integrals of motion and d pφ
the respective conserved quantities. Let us assume aparticle with = 0,
dλ
rest mass µ and four-momentum p = pt , pφ , pr , pθ in geodesic
∂ ∆ ∂ 1 ∂ Vr + ∆Vθ
! ! !
motion around a rotating uncharged BH. This particle has got d pr
= −pr 2 − pθ 2 + ,
four conserved quantities: the particle rest mass µ, the total en- dλ ∂r 2Σ ∂r 2Σ ∂r 2Σ∆
ergy E = −pt , the angular momentum component parallel to
axis L = pφ and the Carter constant 2 ∂ ∆ 2 ∂ ∂ Vr + ∆Vθ
! ! !
the rotation and symmetry d pθ 1
  = −pr − pθ + . (14)
∂θ 2Σ ∂θ 2Σ ∂θ
 p2
Q = pθ + cos θ a µ − pt 2 + sinφ2 θ (Carter 1968). This con-
2 2 2 2 dλ 2Σ∆
stant could perhaps be simply explained as a measure of how We have thus transformed the initial four equations of motion
much a trajectory deviates from the equatorial plane. A parti- into a new system of eight differential equations. The new forms
cle in geodesic motion that starts in the equatorial plane and has are smooth and do not have poles or other problems throughout
Q = 0 will remain there indefinitely and a particle moving out- their range and can be directly integrated. Note that the fifth and
side the equatorial plane with Q > 0 will at some point cross sixth of the above set of equations, describe two of the motion’s
it. Notice if you will however, that the magnitude of Q does not conserved quantities, the conservation of energy and z momen-
relate linearly to the deviation from the equatorial plane motion. tum respectively.
The equations describing the particle motion are (Bardeen Finally, we also define here the coordinate angular velocity
et al. 1972; Wilkins 1972): for a circular equatorial orbit as
dt T
dφ uφ
  
Σ = −a aEsin2 θ − L + r2 + a2 , M 1/2
dλ ∆ Ω= = t = 3/2 (15)
! dt u r + aM 1/2
dφ L T
Σ = − aE − +a , where u = ut , uφ , ur , uθ is the four-velocity of a particle.
 
dλ sin θ
2 ∆
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2.4. Radiation and equations of motion

Here in this paragraph, we discuss the quantities we wish to cal-
culate and seek the appropriate series of equations that can allow
us to estimate them.
Our main goal is to calculate the effects of radiation on the
target particle dynamics. Thus, we begin from the formula that
relates the target particle position with the acceleration
d 2 xα dxµ dxν
2
+ Γαµν = aα , (16)
dτ dτ dτ
where xα are the particle position components, τ the proper
time and Γαµν the Christoffel symbols or connection coefficients
(Mueller & Grave 2009).
The acceleration aα in turn, can be given by the relativistic
equation of motion Fig. 1: Local sky around the target particle, in the left moving
forward in time (the photon moves towards the target) and in the
fa right backwards in time (the photon moves away from the tar-
aα = , (17) get). For the incoming photon, we define angles ã and b̃ similar
m
to the typical polar angle θ and azimuthal angle φ of spherical
where m is the rest mass of the target particle and f α are the 4- coordinate systems. The disk in stripes at the top left represents
force components. Notice that since this is the relativistic equa- the BH event horizon.
tion of motion, this f α only includes nongravitational forces.
Since we wish to investigate the effects of radiation on the par-
ticle motion, this 4-force is for us specifically the radiation 4- amounts of radiation are received in different orientations of the
force. local sky.
In order to calculate the 4-force f α , one needs to know the Finally, the frequency integrated specific intensity I can, as
flux of the radiation that generates it, as its name suggests, be calculated by integrating the specific inten-
f α = σF α , (18) sity Iν across all the contributing frequencies

where σ is the particle cross section for the momentum transfer.

The radiation flux 4-vector F α can in turn be calculated us-
ing the target particle covariant 4-velocity uµ and the radiation
stress–energy tensor T αβ using the formula
α tribution, thermal radiation, a single-energy beam of light or
F = hαβ T µβ uµ ,
where hαβ is the projection tensor
haβ = δαβ + uα uβ .
In order then to acquire the BL radiation stress–energy tensor
T αβ , it is in general necessary to find the LNRF stress–energy
tensor T µ̂ν̂ and then use eq. (11):
T αβ = eαµ̂ eβν̂ T µ̂ν̂ ,
where the eαµ̂ are given by eq. (10).
In order to calculate now T µ̂ν̂ , we make use of the formula
Z 
µ̂ν̂
I r, θ, ã, b̃ nµ̂ nν̂ dΩ̃,

T = (22)
where dΩ̃ = sin ã dã db̃ is the solid angle element with ã and
µ̂ µ̂
 appropriate local angles (fig. 1), n = p /p and
tˆ
b̃ the related
I r, θ, ã, b̃ the frequency integrated specific intensity of the ra-
diation. Simple calculations can give the nµ̂ vector components
as
nφ̂ = sin ã sin b̃, nr̂ = cos ã, nθ̂ = sin ã cos b̃.
Intensity I is, as expected, considered to be a function of the
particle’s position in space, since different locations receive dif-
ferent amounts of radiation. From this, we have already excluded
the φ coordinate due to the spacetime axisymmetry. In addition,
I also naturally depends upon the angles ã and b̃, since different
Article number, page 4 of 41
Z
I= Iν dν. (24)
ν
This can be applied for anything, such as a blackbody dis-
(19) frequency-independent radiation. In an environment where the
radiation is emitted by just a surface layer of the source, the cal-
culation of I is relatively easy and it is done in the method de-
(20) scribed in §2.6. However, in environments where the radiation is
emitted by multiple layers or various objects, the method of the
previously mentioned paragraph cannot be used. In order to cal-
culate there the specific intensity Iν , it is required to investigate
the radiative transfer processes and solve the appropriate equa-
tion. This is generally a rather lengthy subject, both in theory
(21) and especially in applications and will be separately addressed
in the following §2.5.
2.5. Radiative transfer
In this paragraph we look into disks with finite optical depth,
where photons are emitted by the material throughout its entire
volume. The radiation is then regulated by its passage through
the disk’s absorbing and emitting material. If the material is
dense enough, then the ray accumulates a high enough optical
depth so that it cannot have originated from outside the local disk
material, but only from inside it. If on the contrary, the material
is of low density or of small quantity, then the ray must travel
(23) outside the local material and either re-enter the emitting mate-
rial further along its way or escape to infinity, giving only low
intensity radiation. We thus attempt here to find a way to calcu-
late the specific intensity Iν of this radiation. For this reason we
look into the radiative transfer equation (see Rybicki & Light-
man 1986), hereafter RTE, and the necessary changes required
to obtain it in a Lorentz invariant form.
 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

We begin by assuming we have a thermalized material of

number density n. This material consists of particles that will
act as radiation
 absorbers. We define the absorption coefficient
aν cm at frequency ν as
−1

aν = nσν , (25)
 
where σν cm2 is the absorbing area cross section at a
particular
 frequency. Assuming
 an initial specific intensity
Iν erg cm−2 s−1 ster−1 Hz−1 at frequency ν, the presence of the
material’s radiation absorbing particles for a propagation length
ds, will cause a decrease in this specific intensity of a propagat-
ing light ray given by Fig. 2: (left) Emitting matter in the lab frame K, moving with
dIν = −aν Iν ds. (26) velocity →
−u along the vertical axis in a tube of width d. A photon
of frequency ν crosses the tube, travelling at an angle θ from
Things are simpler  for the emission coefficient the vertical axis. (right) Emitting matter in its rest frame K 0 in
the tube. The photon with frequency ν0 now appears to cross the

jν erg cm−3 s−1 ster−1 Hz−1 . When the light ray propagates
for distance ds, it transverses emitting material of volume dV tube at angle θ0 .
and has its specific intensity increased as
dIν = jν ds. (27) and by combining the above with the conservation of particle
number along the world line of the bundle, we obtain that
The radiative transfer equation combines the above two pro- dN
cesses and describes the resulting effects on the light ray’s spe- = 0, (35)
cific intensity as dλ
which is the collisionless Boltzmann kinetic equation and hence
dIν
= −aν Iν + jν . (28) N is Lorentz invariant. The phase space volume is
ds
dV = d3 xd3 p = dAdth3 ν2 dνdΩ (36)
In order to express the solution of the above equation more el-
egantly, we introduce the concept of the optical depth τν at fre- and hence
quency ν that is defined as dN
N= . (37)
dτν = aν ds. (29) h3 ν2 dAdtdνdΩ
Since the specific intensity is defined as
The optical depth can then be calculated by integrating the above
along the path of the light ray hνdN
Iν = , (38)
Z s dAdtdνdΩ
τν (s) = aν s0 ds0 ,


(30) we can see that
s0
1 Iν
where s0 is an arbitrarily selected initial point of the scale. The N= 4 3 (39)
h ν
radiative transfer equation can then be restated as
and therefore the Lorentz invariant specific intensity is
dIν jν
= −Iν + . (31) Iν
dτν aν Iν = = Lorentz invariant. (40)
ν3
Integrating this gives the solution to the radiative transfer equa- The optical depth, used to count photon fractions, is a scalar
tion quantity and is thus invariant
Z s
τ = Lorentz invariant.
0
Iν (s) = Iν (s0 ) e−τν + jν s0 e−[τν (s)−τν (s )] ds0 . (41)


(32)
s0
In order to find the Lorentz invariant absorption coefficient,
The above magnitudes are not in most cases Lorentz invari- we use fig. 2. The tube width d = d0 is the same in both the lab
ant and thus cannot be used in the general solution of the various and the matter rest frame, since it is perpendicular to the direc-
problems, unless restated in such a form (Misner et al. 1973). We tion of motion. Likewise, the x-component of the photon mo-
begin by considering the phase space number density mentum k x = k x 0 , remains unchanged. This however, means that
k sin θ = k0 sin θ0 and thus ν sin θ = ν0 sin θ0 . From the Lorentz
N
N= , (33) invariance of the optical depth τν = aν s, we then have
V
aν = νaν = ν0 aν 0 = Lorentz invariant. (42)
where N is the number of particles under examination and V the
phase space volume they occupy. By taking into account Liou- Finally, for the emission coefficient we utilize eqs. (31), (40)
ville’s theorem in curved spacetime, we have that and (42) and conclude that
dV jν jν 0
=0 (34) jν = = 0 2 = Lorentz invariant. (43)
dλ ν 2 ν
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The Lorentz invariant form of the RTE (31) will thus be 2.6. Intensity of single emission source radiation
In this paragraph we will describe the way to estimate the radi-
dIν jν
= −Iν + . (44) ation received by a target, when said radiation is emitted by a
dτν aν single emission source. This means that the photons are emitted
by a skin surface of the accretion disk, henceforth AD, and do
Since for the optical depth, it is dτν = aν ds, eq. (44) along with not traverse any of its material. This happens in the case where
(42) and (43) gives the disk is totally optically thick. Various parts of this proce-
dure have been studied in the literature: Abramowicz, Ellis, &
dIν jν Lanza (1990) studied radiation emitted by a central nonrotat-
= −aν Iν + 3 . (45) ing star in Schwarzschild spacetime. Miller & Lamb (1996) also
ds ν
studied the environment around emitting stars and expanded this
In order to improve this, we also need a way to implicate the work by examining nonrotating and rotating masses and radi-
path length variation ds/dλ. By using the projection tensor hαβ = ating sources. We have also studied this subject in the previous
gαβ + uα uβ , we have the photon velocity (υ0 )α in the fluid frame work Koutsantoniou & Contopoulos (2014) examining fewer ex-
K 0 as amples of totally opaque disks and a single observer position for
each model-BH spin set. Here, apart from expanding into semi-

α opaque disks discussed later on, we expand our analysis to more
= hαβ kβ = kα + kβ uβ uα ,
 
υ0 (46) disk models and instead of having a single observer at the ISCO
of each model-spin set, we fill the entire region of the system
where uα is the fluid 4-velocity. By the above, we obtain that with a large amount of observers in various locations.
As we saw previously in eq. (40), the Lorentz invariant spe-
ds 0
α  q  cific intensity is Iν = Iν /ν3 and thus for the frequency integrated
= − υ obs = − gαβ (υ ) (υ )  = −kβ uβ obs
α β

0 0 (47) specific intensity it is
dλ obs
I1 I2
= 4 (54)
and for the frequency ratio, it is ν1 ν2
4

for two random points. From this, we have that for the emitted
kβ uβ obs

ν frequency Iem and the received frequency Irec of a photon, it is
= , (48)
ν0 kα u α |λ !4
νrec
Irec = Iem . (55)
(Younsi et al. 2012). Quantities with an accent such as ν0 above, νem
are henceforth considered measured in the local rest frame.
Combining these, we have that Note here that the frequency fraction νrec /νem that appears
above does not depend on the frequencies involved, but only
on the spacetime and the photon’s emission angle. This fre-
ds ν
= −kα uα |λ . (49) quency fraction includes the effects of three different phenomena
dλ ν0 caused mainly by the spacetime properties. Firstly, it includes
the effects of gravitational time dilation, which appear both in
Eq. (45) combined with (42), (43) and (49) gives the differential Schwarzschild and Kerr spacetimes. It also includes the frame
form of the invariant RTE equation as dragging frequency shift due to the spacetime’s differential rota-
tion that appears only in a Kerr spacetime. Finally, it includes the
dIν jν 0
! Doppler shift caused by the motion of the source’s emitting sur-
= − kα uα |λ −aν 0 Iν + 0 3 . (50) face. This can exist in both Schwarzschild and Kerr spacetimes.
dλ ν
The gravitational time dilation causes a frequency shift for
the received frequency νrec given by
Integration of the above gives the solution for the Lorentz invari-
ant specific intensity gtt,em 1/2
!
νrec = νem , (56)
Rλ gtt,rec
a 0 (ζ) k uα | dζ
Iν (λ) = Iν (λ0 ) e λ0 ν α ζ
−
Z λ 0 Rλ
where νem the emitted frequency.
jν (ξ) ξ aν 0 (ζ) kα uα |ζ dζ Assuming the photon source moves azimuthally with negli-
− e kα uα |ξ dξ (51)
λ0 ν03 gible radial and poloidal velocity components, the Doppler shift
due to the emitting surface motion then introduces a change in
The optical depth can be calculated as frequency
1
Z λ νrec =   νem , (57)
τν (λ) = − aν 0 (ζ) kα uα |ζ dζ (52) γ 1 − uφ̂ cos ψ
λ0
−1/2
where u = uφ̂ the source velocity, γ = 1 − u2

the emitting
and equation (51) can then be rewritten as material Lorentz factor and ψ the angle between the emitting
matter velocity and the photon emission direction (fig. 3). Notice
λ
jν 0 (ξ) −[τν (λ)−τν (ξ)] that both the γ factor and the ψ angle are measured in the ZAMO
Z
Iν (λ) = Iν (λ0 ) e −τν (λ)
− e kα uα |ξ dξ. (53)
λ0 ν03 frame at the point of emission.
Article number, page 6 of 41
 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes
Fig. 3: Emission of a photon from the hot AD. The photon is
emitted along n̂ from an element of matter moving with veloc-
ity uφ̂ . The photon is emitted at an angle ψ relative to accreting
material motion.
Concluding the necessary transformations, we have the fac-
tor required for the implementation of the frame dragging ef-
fects, which is
1 + ωrec pφ /pt
νrec = νem ,
1 + ωem pφ /pt
where pa are the photon covariant four-momentum components,
which are also conserved quantities and thus do not need more
subscript specifications. The ratio pφ /pt depends only on the di-
rection of the photon emission and from the previous statement
is also a conserved quantity. Combining the above, we have for
the received frequency that
gtt,em 1/2 1 + ωrec pφ /pt
!
1 lesser “inflating” radiation pressure element than a “deflating”
νrec =  νem (59)
1 + ωem pφ /pt γ 1 − uφ̂ cos ψ

gtt,rec
and for the frequency integrated specific intensity that
gtt,em 2 1 + ωrec pφ /pt 4
! !
1 distribution we assume for these tori. For our calculations, we
Irec = Iem .
gtt,rec 1 + ωem pφ /pt γ4 1 − uφ̂ cos ψ4
In fig. 4, one can see a breakdown of the process described
above, where for visual simplicity we assume that the emission
of photons is done by a central object.
3. Accretion tori
In this section we present the accretion tori we used for our
codes. Some of the tori are optically thick while others are strat-
ified and semi-opaque. In general, we examine tori of various
geometrical and density profiles in order to cover for example
the various stages of matter infall into the BH and the different
stages of disk evolution in X-ray binary systems (see Done et al.
2007).
The first group, are used to represent tori that increase their
density abruptly and very close to their outer surface. They are
mostly rotationally supported and totally optically thick. This
practically means that there is no reason to solve the RTE for
these tori and instead another method of calculation must be
used. These tori could be used to describe physical tori that are
either cold or compact or both. An interesting case they could
also be used to describe, is transient stages of the x-ray binary
systems. During the quiescent stages of these systems, their ADs
tend to be cooler and at a larger distance from the compact ob-
ject. They remain in a similar state for an indefinite amount of
time and at some point later on, they start rising their temper-
ature and swelling up while reducing their density and density
gradient. From that point on, they can no longer be described by
these opaque models but require usage of the semi-opaque tori
models.
The latter group of tori, the semi-opaque ones, describes
more common and familiar perhaps cases of ADs. There is a
measurable density and temperature gradient. For these cases,
one must use a ray tracing process and solve the RTE along the
photon trajectory, calculating how much radiation is produced by
the hot material in every step and how much of this is absorbed
away by it. Depending on the direction and angle of motion of
the travelling photon, it can be at times absorbed by the disk ma-
terial and at other times, it can traverse part of the disk without it
being absorbed. This means that at some points the disk is opti-
cally thick and at other ones, optically thin, and hence the name
semi-opaque. In these cases, effects such as limb darkening and
transparency can be observed.
3.1. Optically thick accretion tori
In this paragraph we will describe the models we used for opaque
(58)
tori. Some of these tori are built by assuming simplistic disk
cross section shapes, such as polygons. Others are more com-
plex and are built self-consistently by assuming that the material
of the disk is supported and kept in place by its rotation.
Optically thick ADs are in general geometrically thin. This is
caused by the “inefficiency” of the radiation. Since the material
of the disk is opaque, the radiation transmitted by its hot com-
ponents cannot reach other, further away parts of the disk. This
results in each local material component to have a significantly
gravitational force element. The result is an AD of smaller geo-
metrical thickness and a much larger pressure gradient, specifi-
cally close to its outer surface.
A matter of particular importance is the surface temperature
(60)
considered two separate cases, an isothermal disk and a disk
whose temperature follows T ∝ r−3/4 . The first case, albeit un-
natural, is the simplest possible, one could imagine and is thus
perhaps easier to understand and conceivably anticipate certain
results.
The second case is to assume that the disk temperature dis-
tribution is caused by the material accreted onto the central com-
pact object. If we assume that the object’s luminosity is equal to
the Eddington luminosity LEdd = 4πGMm p c/σT , then we have
an Eddington accretion rate
4πGMm p
ṀEdd = , (61)
cσT
where G is the gravitational constant, M the disk mass, and m p
the mass of the proton. The current paper is a continuation of our
previous works but involves and also describes a great leap for-
ward in both the codes quality and effectiveness. The new inte-
grations allow us to use several different machines running codes
and automatically saving and sharing the results. Including a new
process, there is the possibility to increase the codes resolution
by 25 − 625 times or in cases eve
Article number, page 7 of 41
 A&A proofs: manuscript no. output

Fig. 4: Schematic of the frequency changes. A Doppler shift is used to move from the frame comoving with the emitting surface
to the LNRF at the radius of the surface, taking into account the emission source rotation. Then we move to the receiving particle,
accounting for two more changes in frequency, the gravitational time dilation due to the change of radial distance from the source
to the target and the different effects of frame dragging, again because of the change in radial distance.

on cross section. Assuming a large enough amount of scat- of magnetic fields. Magnetic field effects usually give rise to very
terings, the disk material can be adequately well described by important effects that affect the structure of the disk and deter-
blackbody radiation and then for the temperature it is mine its evolution. One such important effect is for example the
!1/4 existence of magnetorotational instabilities (MRI) that can have
3G ṀM important effects, particularly on the distribution and flux of an-
T= r−3/4 , (62)
8πσ gular momentum throughout the torus and its diffusion towards
the outer layers and components (see Balbus & Hawley 1991).
where σ the Stefan – Boltzmann constant (see Longair 2011). In our work, we have considered so far six different models
Notice here however, the problem that arises if we simplis- for optically thick accretion tori. Specified by their given names,
tically hypothesize the above. If we assume that the accretion we have the models band, disk, slab, wedge, torus and opaque
luminosity of the object is equal to the Eddington luminosity, rotationally supported torus:
the disk then cannot be geometrically thin. This is because, as
the accretion luminosity increases, the radiation pressure exerted (a) Band: a ring that consists of a vertical surface of half-height h
onto the material keeps getting larger and finally comparable to (from its highest point to the equatorial plane) at the distance
local gravitational forces. As this happens, the disk keeps inflat- of the respective ISCO for the selected spin parameter. The
ing by gaining height and width and thus gradually turning into half-height h can be freely chosen without restrictions. The
a geometrically thick and optically thin torus. The easiest way ring radius can easily be modified.
to bypass such problems, is to simply assume that the accreting (b) Disk: an infinitesimally thin disk at the equatorial plane. Its
object only has a fraction  of the Eddington luminosity inner radius is at the distance of the ISCO and its outer radius
at twice this distance. The innermost and outermost radius of
Ṁacc =  ṀEdd (63) the disk can easily be adjusted.
and thus, it is (c) Slab: a disk of half-height h from the radius of the ISCO to
a distance of three times the ISCO radius. The cross section
!1/4
3G ṀM of the disk is a rectangle (fig. 5). The half-height h can be
T= r−3/4 . (64) freely chosen without restrictions. The innermost and outer-
8πσ
most radius of the AD can easily be adjusted.
Finally, after having picked any of the disk temperature pro- (d) Wedge: a disk whose cross section is an isosceles trapezoid
files, we can have its effect on the emitted photon from and is centered over and under the equatorial plane. Its inner
σS radius is equal to the radius of the ISCO and its outer radius
Iem = T (rem )4 , (65) to three times that. The disk is constructed in such a way that
π an angle with its vertex at the location of the BH (the origin)
where σS the Stefan – Boltzmann constant. extending outwards, reaches the ISCO cylinder intersecting
We should also mention here that although in the vast ma- a ring of half-height h. The angle sides continue extending
jority of AD simulations and studies we assume so, the disk ma- outwards in the same direction until crossing the outer edge
terial in reality is in a far from stationary condition. There are of the disk (fig. 5). The disk half-height h, as well as its inner
increased amounts of turbulence, instabilities and other phenom- and outer radius can easily be modified.
ena taking place, often in miniature scales, that are frequently (e) Torus: a disk with a circular cross section. The center of the
ignored. One such phenomenon is the flow and diffusion of an- circle is at coordinates (r, θ) = (2rIS CO , π/2 ) and its radius is
gular momentum throughout the various disk sectors. The main equal to the ISCO radius. The disk inner edge is therefore at
cause of this diffusion is considered to the material viscosity and r = rIS CO and the outer edge at r = 3rIS CO . The cross section
is treated in various ways, one of the best known and more fre- center and radius of the disk can be adjusted at will (fig. 5).
quently used ones being the α-viscosity method (Shakura & Sun- (f) Opaque rotationally supported torus (ORST): a rotationally
yaev 1973; Abramowicz et al. 1988). This method however, can- supported torus. This disk is one of the more complex cases
not unfortunately be applied to all disk models, such as in non considered for optically thick disk examples. The disk we
α-disks, where other solutions must be found. consider here is stationary and axisymmetric and has its ro-
Another important phenomenon that is known and generally tation axis aligned with the rotation axis of the BH. In our
mentioned in such works but ultimately ignored, is the existence work we have assumed that the two angular velocity vectors
Article number, page 8 of 41
 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

are collinear, but it is simple to consider the opposite case in Σ − 2r2 6aM 2 rsin2 θ
· sin2 θΩ2 − Ω+
order to study retrograde disks. We then assume that the disk Σ2 Σ
acceleration is what creates this setup and specifies its shape.
∂Ω Σ − 2r2
!
2Mr
The acceleration along the particle trajectory is given by +∆sin θΩ
2
−M 1− = 0. (73)
∂r Σ2 Σ
α
Du
aα = = uα ;β uβ = uα ,β uβ + Γαβρ uβ uρ , (66) In order to solve eq. (73), we must define the angular velocity
dτ
function. We use here the angular velocity profile proposed
where Γαβρ are the Christoffel symbols that can be calculated and explained in (Fuerst & Wu 2004, 2007) and Younsi et al.
from the metric (2), using the formula (2012)
√
1 αµ  M  r n p
Γακλ =

g gµκ,λ + gµλ,κ − gκλ,µ . (67) Ω ($) = Ω (r sin θ) = √
K
, (74)
2 (r sin θ)3/2 + a M r sin θ
The torus we have assumed here, as the majority of tori in
where rK is the equatorial plane radius at which the material
works of this type, has negligible radial and poloidal velocity
moves with Keplerian velocity and the parameter n p corre-
components, so (66) can be slightly simplified. We then get
sponds to pressure forces and is responsible for the geometry
for the acceleration components that
of the torus determining its thickness. Tori solutions for var-
at ≡ 0 (68) ious rK and n p values are shown in fig. 6, while the selected
tori used in our simulations are displayed in fig. 5.
φ
a ≡0
The last thing remaining for ADs of this kind, is to calcu-
∆ Σ − 2r2  t
"  2 #
2 φ 2
uφ late the frequency integrated specific intensity. This is done by

a =− M
r
u − asin θu + rsin 2
θ
Σ Σ2 using the method described in §2.6 and then applying §2.4 to de-
termine the radiation flux or force and the ensuing acceleration
sin θ cos θ 2Mr h t  2
(  i2  2 )
θ
a =− au − r + a u + ∆ uφ
2 φ
. caused by the disk’s hot material.
Σ Σ2
The first two of the above equations are in accordance with 3.2. Semi-opaque tori
our initial assumption that the disk is stationary and axisym-
metric respectively. The last two equations are what can give In this paragraph we refer to the semi-opaque and transparent
the surface of constant acceleration, the isobaric surfaces us- disk models considered in our work. Again as before, some of
ing the models are more simplistic than others and some are based
on specific physical conditions and are more complex.
aα uα = 0. (69) For our research, we considered up to this point five disk
models that could fit in the semi-opaque or transparent category.
Using the above equations, this gives Specified by the name of the considered models, we have the
Σ r r following cases:
ar ur + aθ uθ = a u + Σaθ uθ = 0. (70)
∆ (a) No torus: there is no AD around the central BH. Photon tra-
This leads to the pair of differential equations jectories continue until they either cross the event horizon
of the BH or escape the system entirely by crossing an ad-
dr Y justable outer radius boundary.
= √ ,
dξ Y + ∆X 2
2 (b) Semi-opaque pressure supported polish doughnuts (PS PD):
a stationary and axisymmetric pressure supported pol-
dθ X ish doughnut. An accretion torus constructed following
=−√ , (71) Abramowicz et al. 1978 and Kozlowski et al. 1978. As in
dξ Y 2 + ∆X 2
previous tori, we assume here that the material has no sig-
where nificant radial or poloidal velocity
 components and thus has
a 4-velocity uα = ut , uφ , 0, 0 . We follow Younsi et al.

Σ − 2r2  −1 2
X=M Ω − asin2 θ + rsin2 θ 2012 and assume that the torus has a polytropic equation
Σ 2
" # of state P = κnΓ ,where n the material number density and
2Mr  −1 2 2
  i4 1/3
Y = sin θ cos θ aΩ − r − a + ∆
2
h 
(72) κ = ~c 45 (1 − β)/ π2 µm p β , with ~ the Planck con-
Σ2
stant, µ the mean molecular weight, m p the proton mass and
and Ω = uφ /ut is as before the material’s angular velocity. β the ratio of gas pressure to total pressure. The torus is then
The last information necessary to solve the above and have described by
the resulting torus, is its inner edge at the equator. This is
given by solving the equation for marginal stability orbits ∂r ξ (r, θ) = −ar (r, θ)

Σ − 2r2 2 a2 Mrsin2 θ ∂θ ξ (r, θ) = −aθ (r, θ) ,

" 2 !#
r (75)
2aMsin4 θ − r + a 2
+ Ω3 +
Σ Σ2 Σ h
Γ−1
i
where ξ (r, θ) = ln Γ − 1 + Γκn(r, θ) is a function of the
disk number density n (r, θ) and the acceleration components
   ! 
 Σ − 2r2  6Mr r + a
2 2
 
2Mr
 
are aα (r, θ) = uα;β (r, θ) u(r, θ)β . Cross sections of the torus
  
+ + Σ  + 1 −
 
M 3∆ − r ·

Σ Σ Σ
2

 
used are shown in fig. 7.


   



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 A&A proofs: manuscript no. output

Fig. 6: ORST cross sections. In (a) we can see the effects caused
by the change of the radius of Keplerian rotation speed rK . In
(b) we see the tori shapes and sizes for various values of the
parameter n p .

(c) Translucent PS PD: a translucent pressure supported polish

(d) Semi-opaque LFM torus: a stationary and axisymmetric
Fig. 5: Opaque ADs cross sections for the spins studied.
Article number, page 10 of 41
doughnut. It is the same as the above torus, but displays no
absorption of photons by the disk material.
semi-opaque torus of circular cross section. The cross sec-
tion center lies on the equatorial plane at rcenter = 2rIS CO
and the torus cross section has a radius rtorus = rIS CO . The
torus thus stretches from an inner radius of rinner = rIS CO
to an outer radius router = 3rIS CO and has a maximum
height htorus = rtorus = rIS CO . The center number density is
 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes
ncenter = 1018 cm−3 and decreases to zero moving towards the
torus surface. For this torus the product aν · 2rtorus is ∼ 1 − 5
throughout the cross section. Images of the cross section are
shown in fig. 8.
(e) Translucent LFM torus: a translucent LFM torus of circular
cross section. It is the same as the previous model, but with-
out its material absorbing any of the photons crossing it.
The disk models discussed above are responsible for giving
us most importantly the material’s number density n (r, θ). From
that, one can then obtain other useful quantities for the matter,
one of which is the material temperature. Following regular pro-
cedures, we can have here
#1/3
~c 45 (1 − β)
"
T (r, θ) = ρ(r, θ)1/3 ,
k π2 µm p β
where ρ the (volumetric mass) density.
Continuing on, we can obtain firstly the necessary material’s
absorption coefficient from eq. (25) as
aν (r, θ) = σν n (r, θ) ,
where σn is the absorption cross section best chosen for the pro-
cesses under study. Moving forward on, we can find the corre-
sponding emission coefficient of the material by making use of
the thermal emission and blackbody radiation properties we have
for our assumed disk. The thermal emission assumption gives
that the emission coefficient is given by
jν (r, θ) = aν (r, θ) Bν (T ) ,
where Bν (T ) the Planck function and T the corresponding tem-
perature. In order to procure the Planck function, we make use
of the blackbody attributes of the material and have
2hν3 /c2
Bν (T ) = , (79)
exp (hν/kT ) − 1
where k the Boltzmann constant. Combining then the above
equations, we have for jν that
2hν3 /c2
jν (r, θ) = σν n (r, θ) . (80)
exp [hν/kT (r, θ)] − 1
Notice here however, that in the above equations, one could also
add shaping functions to modify the emission and absorption
of the material to study other disk models or perhaps different
physical properties. A more general form of the above functions
could thus be
aν (r, θ) = Cabs σν f (n (r, θ) , T [n (r, θ)] , E [n (r, θ)]) ,
jν (r, θ) = Cem f (n (r, θ) , T [n (r, θ)] , E [n (r, θ)]) .
One case of such choices can be seen for example in Younsi et al.
2012.
After concluding the calculations
 described  above, we have
the resulting radiation intensity I r, θ, ã, b̃ . We can then apply
the method of §2.4 and obtain the stress – energy tensor and the
flux and force of the radiation.
4. Algorithms and codes
In this section we will present the codes we created and used in
our work and explain their capabilities. We will also show many
results of the various studies we have performed in assorted se-
tups of disk models, spin parameters and other. Before moving
along, the reader should be made aware of the fact that all of
the codes used in our work and presented here, were designed
in order to be executed in extremely limited computational re-
sources. This has important consequences on the design, speed
and effectiveness required from the codes.
4.1. Code Omega
The code named Omega was the first created in our work and
(76) its first version was written in 2013. It is so far, one of the most
important parts of all following codes.
The code’s main goal is to find photon trajectories. It
works for a Schwarzschild and a Kerr spacetime, but it can
be easily modified in order to work in other spacetime mod-
els as well, e.g. Kerr – Newman, Reissner – Nordström, Fried-
mann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker etc.
(77)
The code studies various tori models which were referred
and explained in §3.1 and §3.2 and some were also depicted in
figs. 5, 7 and 8. It is also possible to add new AD models to the
code. Adding disks resulting from a combination of the previ-
ously mentioned models, is a quick and easy matter. Examples
of such tasks are shown in fig. 9.
Omega solves the particle trajectory equations mentioned in
§2.3 for a photon and finds the trajectory and the point of origin
of said photon. This point of origin could be on the hot AD,
(78)
the BH event horizon or a location outside and far away from
the system. If all that the photon trajectory intersects with is the
event horizon or the system exterior, then no radiation or energy
is carried to the AD material and the target particle.
Depending on the environment in which it is used, Omega
code can have different outputs. In its original form, which is
visual, the program has an interface that allows the user to se-
lect primary properties for the environment, such as the disk
model, the BH spin parameter and the disk height. Also, one
can select important options for a trajectory, including its max-
imum length, its point of origin and angle of emission and the
two emission angles ã and b̃. Finally, there are some additional
optical options that include the choice of frame size of the vi-
sual box and the depiction of obscured parts of the outer disk.
The code’s dynamic output picture shows the BH event horizon
and its ergosphere, the AD and the requested photon trajectory.
The photon trajectory is drawn in different styles and colors for
escaping particles, particles infalling in the BH and particle tra-
jectories starting from the AD. In addition, some trajectory infor-
mation are displayed in the picture, including the photon energy
and angular momentum, the trajectory’s Carter constant and the
initial “TARGET” momentum magnitude. Finally, at the bottom
appear the requested experiment “SOURCE” information, the
received photon source coordinates and the momentum magni-
(81) tude at emission. All the above can be seen in fig. 10.
Another version of the Omega code is available, where in-
stead of a single trajectory, a bundle of photon orbits are dis-
played. Again, the photon orbit representation depends on its
origin, as described above. Since more than one orbits are dis-
played in a single picture, no additional numerical information
for the trajectories are displayed in this case. In addition to the
previous version’s options, in this one the user also has the extra
Article number, page 11 of 41
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Fig. 7: Polish doughnut number density cross sections. The center of all tori lies at (12, 0) and has a number density of 1018 cm−3 .
The top row shows the disk for BH spin parameters a = 0 and a = 0.5, while the bottom row for a = 0.9 and a = 0.998.

Fig. 8: LFM model number density cross section for any spin
parameter. The center of the tori lies at (2rIS CO , 0) and has a
number density of 1018 cm−3 .

choice of how many photon orbits will be displayed. An example

of the code’s output image can be seen in fig.11
The last Omega code version is the most plain, yet by far the
most important one of all. It is not a code anymore but a func-
tion which solves the photon equations of motion and outputs
only numerical data and no visual information. It runs for a sin-
gle photon trajectory per execution and returns key information
for this trajectory. Firstly, it gives the existence or absence of in-
coming radiation in the requested direction. It then also gives the
precise photon trajectory numerically as well as the coordinates
of the emission source. The reason Omega is considered so im-
portant is because it is called and used by all almost all of the Fig. 9: ADs created from combinations of previously referred
subsequent codes we have created so far and is thus one of the models: wedge & slab, torus & wedge, polish doughnut & torus
most important parts of our entire work. and polish doughnut & spheres.
Before moving on to the next family of codes, we should
mention here that even though Omega is built in order to study
photon trajectories, it is fairly easy to modify it in order to make since. It started off as a code that would run and give the radiation
it follow massive particle trajectories. information about a single target at a single and specific point in
space and is now an extended and fully automatic program that
4.2. Code Infinity can run entire simulations for a large stream of different points
and situations that do not even require being of the same kind.
The Infinity code is the next step after Omega. Its first version It automatically creates various files, saving numerical data, im-
was written in 2013 and it has had many improving versions ages and information possibly useful for other runs or aggregated
Article number, page 12 of 41
 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes
Fig. 10: The control interface of the Omega code, as described in §4.1
Fig. 11: Output image of the photon bundle edition of the Omega
code. The user here has selected the depiction of 12 photon tra-
jectories. The solid (blue) lines at the center are trajectories of
photons emitted from the AD. The dashed (purple) lines in the
left are trajectories that would originate from the event horizon
and the dotted (red) lines in the right are photons that should
have been emitted from somewhere outside the system.
results. It also has another interesting ability worth mentioning
here. Infinity code can be stopped at any time during execution
and then restarted later on when the system is again available
and the calculations simply continue on from where they were
left off. This is very useful in many instances, including cases of
power outage.
In the Infinity code, the user chooses a point of interest any-
where in the system under study and the program sets an ob-
server there. It then scans the entire sky around said observer,
solving the RTE and returning the radiation reaching the ob-
server from each of the angles of the local sky. It then calcu-
lates the stress – energy tensor for the radiation and creates var-
ious images and sky maps of the radiation. It continues on to
run a procedure that increases the code resolution by a signif-
icant number of times (see fig.12). In our runs, we choose to
increase the resolution by five times but it is easily possible to
change that to a higher or smaller number. It is also possible to
choose to run more than one applications of the process. This
was a rather hard procedure to create but was necessary, because
as mentioned in the beginning of this section, the available com-
putational resources are severely restricted and thus running the
desired quality and amount of codes is not possible since that
would require many months or some years.
The program continues on to calculate the radiation flux and
force four-vectors applied on various observers. This includes
observers at rest in the local frame, rotating with ω = ω (r, θ) (eq.
5) as seen from infinity, observers in circular orbits moving with
Ω (eqs. 15 and 74) depending on the selected disk model, ob-
servers on accreting material attempting to mimic the SANE and
MAD models (Narayan et al. 2012; Penna et al. 2013; Narayan
et al. 2003), and finally observers in two possible outflow re-
gions close to the system rotation axis and above a certain height
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Fig. 12: Three instances of the first version of the resolution en-
hancement process. The program was initially written in order to
improve the appearance of the output images. However, so much
attention and detail was put in it, that it proved to be good enough
to improve the simulation results themselves. The program func-
tions were thus rewritten in order to work in the appropriate way
to enhance the run results by a number of times.
Article number, page 14 of 41
Fig. 13: The various regions of a system we consider in a run.
“Halo” only includes observers at rest in the local rest frame
and rotating with ω. “Outer disk” is the main AD of the system.
Material there can move in four different ways: at rest in the lo-
cal rest frame rotating with ω, purely azimuthally with angular
velocity Ω, or by slowly infalling in a manner like SANE and
MAD. “Inner disk” is the region of infalling material and thus
includes only matter at rest in the local rest frame and infalling
material mimicking SANE and MAD. The “Outflow” region is
part of a cylinder centered at the system’s rotation axis that in-
cludes the BH’s ergosphere and has thus a radius r = 2M. The
actual region is considered to exist above a certain height, further
away from the BH. In this region, we can have matter at rest in
the local rest frame and matter flowing outwards with a certain
velocity. We may also consider a sub-region there, a narrower
cylinder with radius r = M with stronger outflow and faster ve-
locity.
(fig. 13). Let us note here that, even though we have made our
choice on certain velocity profiles for the various disk models,
this can easily be adjusted to suit the needs of other disk models
with different material velocities. Notice also, that such a change
would only affect the final step of the program, that only takes
a few minutes to run, and does not require for all the code to be
re-executed from the beginning, something that would require
hours or a day.
The program then concludes by outputting its results and cre-
ating various save files. Firstly, it incorporates its minimum and
maximum radiation values to the relevant files for each model.
Then, it writes in the selected model’s four and three-force val-
ues files for the various observer velocities. It then goes on to
create the numerical raw data file for the simulation and a Moll-
weide map picture for the radiation of the specific observer lo-
cation. Finally, it creates a graphical output file that includes
short but important information of the simulation it is describ-
ing, along with several pictures of the important matrices for the
simulation. It also includes tables for the assorted profiles’ force
components and the radiation stress – energy tensor matrix.
In Table 1, we can see the amount of Infinity codes ran for
each model and spin parameter. In fig. 14, we can see some Moll-
weide projection sky maps of the incoming radiation in the same
models mentioned in Table 1. Also, since there are about six
thousand images produced by the codes that cannot fit in a pa-
per, or be studied by a person, videos of flights around and if
possible through the disk for all the models we studied, can be
 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes
found on youtube.com, under the name of this work’s creator
"Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou".
Continuing on, we can see figs. (19) – (24) and examine them
in detail. These pictures show the 4-force components sign and
magnitude at several points outside, near and inside (if possi-
ble) the various disk models mentioned in Table 1 and fig. 14.
Each line of these pictures refers to target particles belonging to
one of the aforementioned velocity groups: “halo” includes par-
ticles moving only with ω due to the spacetime rotation, “disk”
includes particles in circular orbits with speed Ω, “SANE” and
“MAD” refer to particles in inspiral orbits, attempting to mimic
these two accretion situations and “outflow” refers to rotating
target particles that also have a radial velocity component point-
ing outwards.
The first four lines of each picture are poloidal plots: the hor-
izontal axis measures the cylindrical distance $ from the central
axis and the vertical measures the height z from the equatorial
plane, which is also a symmetry plane for the ADs. The fifth and
last line of each picture shows plots similar to the previous ones,
but these plots are rotated 90 degrees: the horizontal axis is z
and measures the height from the equatorial plane and the verti-
cal axis is $, measuring the cylindrical distance from the system
rotation axis.
Also, each of the pictures consists of two parts: part A shows
the force components measured in the BL frame and part B mea-
sured in the ZAMO frame. Even though the plot color schemes
change for the various disk models, the reader should keep in
mind that in all cases, point zero is always assigned to white
color. In addition, warmer colors (hues of red, pink, orange etc.)
are used to show positive force values and cooler colors (blue,
green, cyan etc.) to show negative force values. The columns in
each plot group show in order the distribution of the t-, φ-, r- and
θ- force components.
Some of the results presented by the plots are expected, while
others are not. Notice that the divergence of the BL halo f t plot
from zero gives us a measurement of the numerical and compu-
tational errors present in our calculations. These errors appear to
be around 15 orders of magnitude bellow the forces we are at-
tempting to calculate, so they are well within acceptance limits.
Looking at the first column of a picture group, we can see the
effects of the radiation on the energy absorption amount and rate
by the target particles. The images provided by the simulations
are in qualitative agreement with the expected results, since we
can see the energy transfer getting stronger, the closer we get to
the central object and thus the faster we rotate and absorb energy
as well. The second column shows the azimuthal component of
the radiation force. Notice that this appears to be negative in the
vast majority of cases and changes only for areas very close to
the ergosphere, or for cases with large BH spins (a ≥ 0.9). This
is in agreement with the results presented in our previous work
Koutsantoniou & Contopoulos 2014. The third column shows
the radial 4-force recorded for each disk model and it is also in
qualitative agreement with the expected results. When the target
is further out the disk, it receives more radiation coming from
its interior local sky hemisphere than its exterior one, and is thus
pushed further outwards. For a target further inside the disk, the
opposite occurs: the outer hemisphere receives more radiation
than the inner one, and the particle is pushed towards the BH.
The fourth column shows the θ- force in the poloidal plane and
its effects on the system particles. Notice that as expected, this
force disappears in the equatorial plane and becomes negligible,
the closer we get to the vertical rotation axis. In almost all the
cases this force is negative, which means it pushes the material
towards the rotation axis. In the very few cases where the force
sign is positive, note that these points are in very close proximity
to the ergosphere and can only see a small part of the sky around
them. Hence, the received radiation is governed by the Einstein
ring of the opposite side of the disk, across the BH.
Some other important notes for these pictures are also the
following. First of all, even though the forces may seem small
or negligible, we should always keep in mind that these forces ∼
10−13 dyn act upon the electrons and therefore a mass ∼ 10−27 g.
This means that the acceleration due to radiation is ∼ 1014 cm/s2
and it is primarily acting upon the material electrons since
fe / f p ∼ (m p /me )2 . Also, the reader should be aware that the
large red and blue/green dots in the plots act in the same manner
as the diffuse colors and represent about half of the runs. These
dots are there only to help us distinguish between positive and
negative value forces when the colors are perhaps too faint to
see, e.g. close to zero, where the force colors approach white.
Finally, looking closely at these pictures, one can notice that
the t-force zero curves are not located at the same places as the
φ-, r- and θ-force zero curves. This was not an anticipated event
and it is worth mentioning explicitly since it gives rise to per-
haps unexpected 3-force components close and through the disk.
(High resolution images of these plots can be found in the elec-
tronic form of this work and can be zoomed in and studied better
and easier.)
4.3. Code Elysium
The Elysium code was written in 2014 and kept up to date and
improved since. Its main goal is to design and create a recording
screen a specifically user selected distance away from the BH
and AD system. Depending on the selected program resolution,
the screen has the corresponding amount of “pixels” and from
each of those, a light ray is emitted perpendicularly to the screen
and moves towards the disk and the BH (fig. 15). Depending
on what this ray will meet along its path, it returns information
about its origin and the radiation received.
From the above information and the related results image
(fig. 16), we can see that the Elysium code is, as designed, ideal
in order to produce BH and AD images as seen from further
away from the disk, or from "infinity".
Notice here, that Elysium is similar to the aforementioned
Infinity code but is practically its complement. Elysium there-
fore has equal quality and quantity of capabilities, options and
result information as Infinity. The difference of the two codes is
literally, as well as figuratively, a point of view. Infinity starts at
the single end point of ray trajectories and integrates the equa-
tions going backwards in time in order to find if the intersecting
light pathway can possibly traverse a light source at any point in-
side the system in question. Elysium has multiple starting points,
the “pixels” of the screen, and integrates in a normal way, going
forward in time to see if an observer sitting at the pixel’s loca-
tion can see any part of the disk. There are various advantages
and disadvantages in both methods and depending on the type of
information required each time, we can choose the most appro-
priate and fast code of the two.
4.4. Code Tranquillity
Tranquillity code was written in early 2019. Its main purpose
was to find the quickest way possible to have an estimation of
the AD inclination and to see if an assessment of the central BH
spin is possible.
Article number, page 15 of 41
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Table 1: The number of Infinity code executions for the various disk models and spin parameters. The first four columns are some
of the opaque disks we described earlier. The slab is discussed in §3.1 (c), wedge in (d), torus in (e) and ORST in (f). The remaining
columns are two of the semi-opaque disks we mentioned in §3.2. PD can be found in (b) and LFM in (d).

—————– Disk model —————–

slab wedge torus ORST LFM PD
s 0 168 170 163 184 496 426 Total
p 0.5 182 177 176 188 478 456 number
i 0.9 156 158 148 179 424 460 of
n 0.998 - - - 191 414 460 runs
Sums 506 505 487 742 1812 1802 5854

Fig. 14: Mollweide projection sky maps of the frequency integrated specific intensity. Each image shows the run results for a
different disk model. Below each image, the model’s color scale is displayed from minimum to maximum.

The calculations for the inclination were rather successful,
since the average declination was below 0.8 degrees for the 120
cases of different inclinations and spin parameters examined (2).
However, about 3% of the cases examined, gave inclination er-
rors above average. The estimation errors were about five de-
grees or less, and were caused by specific conditions of the setup
that had a BH first echo ring appear in very particular and pecu-
liar locations. The model selected for the AD of the object in
question, does not appear to play any significant part in the in-
clination assessment so far.

Article number, page 16 of 41

 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

Fig. 15: Images that show the workings of the Elysium code. On the left is a run for a 7 × 7 pixels screen with j = 0.5, at an
inclination 45◦ . On the right is the center pixels column of a 100 × 100 screen with j = 0 at inclination 85◦ . The continuous lines
are light rays that intersect the AD and thus carry radiation, while the dashed ones end up in the event horizon and the dotted ones
at infinity, attributing nothing to the radiation total.

Table 2: Declinations of the Tranquillity code estimation of the depending of the model examined, different disk models will
disk inclinations for various BH spins (columns) and inclinations follow different divergence plots, directly affected by the disk’s
(lines). The spin is shown in the top row and the inclination, set inner edge radius (see Abramowicz et al. 2010). We clearly state
by hand for the disk, is measured in degrees and is displayed in here that our code does not use or rely at all on the inner edge
the first column. The values in the matrix are the errors in the of the disk, but only on the appearance of the entire disk as a
Tranquillity code execution and are also measured in degrees. whole. The disk appearance thus, does not prove to be an insur-
Two of the three worst cases of erroneous results, caused by the mountable problem, since it only seems to cause a recalibration
echo ring, are shown here, but are still rather small. to the divergence plot.
Finally, keeping in mind the very good quality of the afore-
0.2 0.7 0.9 mentioned Tranquillity inclination results, one could use obser-
0◦ 0 0 0 vational data for an estimation of the inner edge of the AD, and
10◦ 0.396 0.191 0.071 by moving vertically in the appropriate divergence plot, can have
20◦ 1.247 0.683 0.554 an assessment of the central BH spin parameter.
30◦ 1.276 0.815 0.677
40◦ 1.471 0.887 0.695
50◦ 1.200 0.917 0.667 4.5. Code Burning Arrow
60◦ 1.249 0.776 0.555
The Burning Arrow code was first written in late 2019, has had
70◦ 0.987 3.874 2.002
some improved versions since and was gravely rewritten in 2020.
80◦ 0.534 0.348 0.370
Its main purpose is to study the BH massive particles orbit degra-
90◦ 0 0 0
dation due to the hot disk radiation.
In order to study the particle motion, the code must solve the
general relativistic equations of motion, equivalent to the Classi-
In fig. 17, we can see the divergence results given by the exe- cal Newton’s Laws of Motion. Starting from the first law, in ab-
cution of 120 runs of the Tranquillity code for an AD of varying sence of general relativistic forces, the particle in question will
inclinations, ranging from 0◦ up to 90◦ , compared to the line of follow a geodesic through spacetime. This geodesic obeys the
sight. An angle of 90◦ , means the disk is seen edge on. The code equation
was ran for inclination angles every 5◦ , plus runs for an angle of
89◦ . There is a clearly visible trend for the divergence evolution d 2 xµ
of the same BH spin across the various inclinations. + Γµαβ uα uβ = 0, (82)
dτ2
An important note here is that the disk model adopted plays α
a very important part in the divergence calculations. Since the where τ is the proper time, uα = dx dτ is the 4-velocity and
µ 1 µν
 
inner edge of the disk examined can be at very different radii, Γαβ = 2 g gαν,β + gβν,α − gαβ,ν the Christoffel symbols, with
Article number, page 17 of 41
 A&A proofs: manuscript no. output
Fig. 16: Photograph pictures taken by running Elysium for the
ORST. In the left column, there are photographs taken from a
screen with 45◦ and the right with 85◦ inclination. Each line has
a different BH spin parameter. Moving from top to bottom these
are j = 0, j = 0.5 and j = 0.998. The reader could compare this
picture with the similar Younsi et al. 2012, figure 3.
Fig. 17: The Tranquillity code collective results, where the cir-
cles represent execution results. There is a clear trend for the
divergence evolution for every BH spin. In this plot, we also
include the three worst code results, depicting them with the
dashed colored lines.
Article number, page 18 of 41
commas used for partial derivatives. As in Newton’s equation,
the zero term on the right stands for the absence of acceleration.
Solving the above, gives the various geodesic solutions that de-
scribe among others, special circular orbits such as the ISCO, the
photon sphere etc. The above equation can also be rewritten as
d 2 xµ α
µ dx dx
β α β
t dx dx dx
µ
+ Γ αβ − Γαβ = 0, (83)
dt2 dt dt dt dt dt
by using the chain rule in order to have derivations by the coordi-
nate time x0 = t. This however has proved to be more prominent
to error accumulation in our work and so we choose to work with
the proper time equations instead.
The above equation gives later on, rise to the equivalent of
Newton’s second law of motion and a way to calculate the ac-
celerations present in a problem, such as those generated by the
radiation forces in our case. As in the Infinity code, we con-
sider different cases of velocity behaviors, such as the SANE
and MAD models as mentioned before, in addition to the typical
Bardeen et al. 1972 angular velocity profile.
In the beginning of the execution and depending on the study
requested, the code looks up into the Infinity code result files and
reads the appropriate ones, relevant to each case. It then uses
these results to generate proper functions that give the radiation
stress – energy tensor at every point of spacetime used in the
problem at hand. This gives the 4-acceleration due to radiation
aµrad at each point from the extension of the aforementioned equa-
tion as
d 2 xµ
aµrad = + Γµαβ uα uβ . (84)
dτ2
Since the radiation acceleration is known in spacetime from the
previous results, one can solve these 8 differential equations and
get the 4-velocity and 4-positions describing the sought particle
trajectory.
Finally, the last step for the code is to draw the evolution
of the various velocity profile orbits. As an example, we show
in fig. 18 the degradation of equatorial orbits, due to radiation
from a semi-opaque LFM torus around a non-rotating BH. These
emitted massive particles start from various radii from the axes
origin and thus encounter different environments of material and
radiation density each.
5. Conclusions & Discussion
In this work we chose to study the radiation field produced by the
hot accretion disk orbiting around a black hole. This field is very
complex for many reasons, some of which are the general rela-
tivistic effects present, and also the fact that the radiation source
is no longer central, but is instead extended in a large azimuthal
volume of space.
Our work is novel in the sense that for the first time, to our
knowledge, the radiation field around a black hole is studied and
computationally calculated so extensively and so close to the var-
ious system components and critical points. The field is exam-
ined all around, close and further away from the black hole and
most importantly very close to event horizon, throughout the ac-
cretion disk and in the generally unexamined space between the
horizon and the disk. Our codes have produced a large quantity
of numerical results, which we chose to show in color-coded fig-
ures, so the reader could access the most significant results of
this work. Various parts of our work reveal that the effects of ra-
diation on the disk material itself are significant and should not
be overlooked or deemed inconsequential. This radiation proves
 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

Fig. 18: Degradation of equatorial orbits around a non-rotating BH due to the semi-opaque (LFM) disk’s thermal radiation. With
black is the Bardeen et al. (1972) velocity profile, with cyan and with orange an approximation of a SANE and a MAD model
velocity profile respectively (Narayan et al. 2012; Penna et al. 2013; Narayan et al. 2003). Notice here the "peculiar" orbits at
radius r = 12, which corresponds to the disk’s radiation center: anything moving faster than the disk at that radius will be slingshot
outwards and anything moving slower, will rapidly cross the event horizon (darker gray disk).

Article number, page 19 of 41

 A&A proofs: manuscript no. output
to be larger and stronger than expected and creates noticeable
accelerations, far from negligible. These accelerations should be
taken into account, when studying systems like the ones men-
tioned in this work, since the effects of radiation onto the disk
material will in some cases dramatically modify its dynamics,
its equilibrium and evolution. The reader should also keep in
mind that since, as mentioned in more details above, these ra-
diation forces mostly act on the plasma electrons, electromag-
netic effects, such as an electric current and a subsequent battery
mechanism are naturally occurring in such environments. Notice
however, that depending on the disk material’s Prandtl number
and magnetic diffusion, this battery mechanism can be of vary-
ing efficiencies.
Throughout our work we created five families of codes with
many generations each, in total of some hundreds. These codes
study photon trajectories, examine the black hole - accretion disk
system from close up and from far away, create inclination - spin
templates for various disk models in an attempt to assess a black
hole’s spin from observational data taken from far away and in
addition study particle trajectories under the influence of rela-
tivistic effects and the presence of the disk’s thermal radiation.
In our study we examined optically thin and thick, and ge-
ometrically thin and thick disks. Also, we chose to apply cer-
tain radial and azimuthal velocity and temperature profiles, that
follow and agree with the majority of studies in environments
such as the ones we study here. Various alterations and reassess-
ments can be made however, in order to better suit other situa-
tions, other disk models, prograde or retrograde material motion,
spacetime environments etc.
In total, for this work we ran more than 6.5 thousand simu-
lations and we studied more that 3.5 billion photon trajectories.
Large text and composite files and a multitude of relevant images
were also created for each execution ran.
A matter worth perhaps looking further into, could be the
effects of these significant radiation forces in the dynamics and
the stability of the disk itself. The modifications brought upon
these systems could be noteworthy, since long considered con-
cepts such as the ISCO, must take radiation effects corrections
into account.
Another matter worth examining in the future, is the radi-
ation effects and possible consequences on outflowing material
close to the object axis. Is the radiation perhaps of notable im-
portance on the very early stages of material outward movement?
The disk radiation is also pushing the material closer to the ro-
tation axis but does it offer any significant contribution to the
initial, albeit very small, collimation of the outflow material? Fi-
nally, something that could be considered in the future, is the cal-
culated radiation’s effects on further, more complex situations,
such as the disk evolution in X-ray binaries and the observed
hardness-intensity diagrams.
Article number, page 20 of 41
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 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

Fig. 19: (a). Forces for the slab opaque disk model §3.1(c) for BH spin a = 0. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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Fig. 19: (b). Forces for the slab opaque disk model §3.1(c) for BH spin a = 0.5. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

Article number, page 22 of 41

 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

Fig. 19: (c). Forces for the slab opaque disk model §3.1(c) for BH spin a = 0.9. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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Fig. 20: (a). Forces for the wedge opaque disk model §3.1(d) for BH spin a = 0. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

Article number, page 24 of 41

 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

Fig. 20: (b). Forces for the wedge opaque disk model §3.1(d) for BH spin a = 0.5. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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Fig. 20: (c). Forces for the wedge opaque disk model §3.1(d) for BH spin a = 0.9. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

Article number, page 26 of 41

 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

Fig. 21: (a). Forces for the torus opaque disk model §3.1(e) for BH spin a = 0. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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Fig. 21: (b). Forces for the torus opaque disk model §3.1(e) for BH spin a = 0.5. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

Article number, page 28 of 41

 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

Fig. 21: (c). Forces for the torus opaque disk model §3.1(e) for BH spin a = 0.9. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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Fig. 22: (a). Forces for the ORST disk model §3.1(f) for BH spin a = 0. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

Fig. 22: (b). Forces for the ORST disk model §3.1(f) for BH spin a = 0.5. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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Fig. 22: (c). Forces for the ORST disk model §3.1(f) for BH spin a = 0.9. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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Fig. 22: (d). Forces for the ORST disk model §3.1(f) for BH spin a = 0.998. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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Fig. 23: (a). Forces for the LFM semi-opaque disk model §3.2(d) for BH spin a = 0. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

Fig. 23: (b). Forces for the LFM semi-opaque disk model §3.2(d) for BH spin a = 0.5. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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Fig. 23: (c). Forces for the LFM semi-opaque disk model §3.2(d) for BH spin a = 0.9. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

Fig. 23: (d). Forces for the LFM semi-opaque disk model §3.2(d) for BH spin a = 0.998. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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Fig. 24: (a). Forces for the PD semi-opaque disk model §3.2(b) for BH spin a = 0. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

Fig. 24: (b). Forces for the PD semi-opaque disk model §3.2(b) for BH spin a = 0.5. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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Fig. 24: (c). Forces for the PD semi-opaque disk model §3.2(b) for BH spin a = 0.9. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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 Leela Elpida Koutsantoniou : Algorithms and ray tracing for tori around black holes

Fig. 24: (d). Forces for the PD semi-opaque disk model §3.2(b) for BH spin a = 0.998. BL is on the top and ZAMO on the bottom.

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