Standing Rankine--Hugoniot Shocks in Black Hole Accretion Discs

We study the problem of standing shocks in viscous disc-like accretion flows around black holes. For the first time we parametrize such a flow with two physical constants, namely the specific angular momentum accreted by the black hole j and the energy quantity K. By providing the global dependence of shock formation in the j-K parameter space, we show that a significant parameter region can ensure solutions with Rankine--Hugoniot shocks; and that the possibilities of shock formation are the largest for inviscid flows, decreasing with increasing viscosity, and ceasing to exist for a strong enough viscosity. Our results support the view that the standing shock is an essential ingredient in black hole accretion discs and is a general phenomenon in astrophysics, and that there should be a continuous change from the properties of inviscid flows to those of viscous ones.