Testing the Propagating Fluctuations Model with a Long, Global Accretion Disk Simulation

Abstract: The broad-band variability of many accreting systems displays characteristic structure; log-normal flux distributions, RMS-flux relations, and long inter-band lags. These characteristics are usually interpreted as inward propagating fluctuations in an accretion disk driven by stochasticity of the angular momentum transport mechanism. We present the first analysis of propagating fluctuations in a long-duration, high-resolution, global three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of a geometrically-thin ($h/r\approx0.1$) accretion disk around a black hole. While the dynamical-timescale turbulent fluctuations in the Maxwell stresses are too rapid to drive radially-coherent fluctuations in the accretion rate, we find that the low-frequency quasi-periodic dynamo action introduces low-frequency fluctuations in the Maxwell stresses which then drive the propagating fluctuations. Examining both the mass accretion rate and emission proxies, we recover log-normality, linear RMS-flux relations, and radial coherence that would produce inter-band lags. Hence, we successful relate and connect the phenomenology of propagating fluctuations to modern MHD accretion disk theory.