Dynamic Accretion Discs in Astrophysics

Accretion discs play a crucial role in many important astrophysical processes. The dynamics of these discs is often highly complex, requiring detailed analytical investigations combined with large-scale numerical calculations to make progress. Building on my experience in these areas, I propose a research programme split into two broad and interlinked projects. The specific objectives are: 1. Dynamics of Warped Discs: To enhance our understanding of warped and tearing discs through time-dependent analytical and numerical modelling. 2. Circumbinary discs: To develop new models of circumbinary discs for comparison with observed data in protoplanetary systems and to improve predictions for SMBH binary evolution.
This theoretical research is timely due to the motivational input from observing missions. Disc tearing has been directly linked with the gas dynamics in spatially-resolved protoplanetary discs. The recent discovery of quasi-periodic eruptions from AGN and the possibility that they may be driven by disc tearing offers a route to understanding the structure and dynamics of supermassive black hole accretion discs. The new era of high-cadence, all-sky monitoring facilities brings a wealth of data for variability studies, and this research will provide detailed models of time-dependent accretion to compare with such data. I will work with a PDRA and my existing network of collaborators to make breakthroughs in understanding the dynamics of accretion discs. The results will have far reaching consequences for our understanding of several important topics in astronomy, and we will connect the research with the observational data from current and future missions (e.g. Swift, HST, eROSITA, LISA, VLT, ALMA).