Semi-Analytic Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flows in General Gravity

Abstract

The Event Horizon Telescope is capable of observing black holes on event-horizon scales and we can use it to explore deviations from General Relativity. We replicate the results of a previous study using a Newtonian prescription of gravity to set a suitable limit to justify viscosity and radiation choices. We also create a framework to explore semi-analytic models of Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flows with a covariant prescription of gravity. We study a Kerr-like metric not described by General Relativity, and find only small deviations from Kerr solutions. We also find that the dynamics of the flow are sensitive to small General Relativistic effects.