English

Maximum Accretion Efficiency in General Theory of Relativity

Astrophysics 2007-05-23 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We derive here the expression for the accretion luminosity, L()L(\infty), as seen by a distant inertial observer SS_\infty, for the case of spherical accretion onto a static compact object having a surface gravitational red-shift zxz_x. It is found that the ``efficiency'' for conversion of mass energy into accretion energy is given by ϵ=zx/(1+zx)\epsilon = z_x/(1+z_x). And since the maximum value of zxz_x permitted by General Theory of Relativity (GTR) is 2, the maximum theoretical value of the accretion efficiency is 66.66%.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9811402,
  title  = {Maximum Accretion Efficiency in General Theory of Relativity},
  author = {Abhas Mitra},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9811402},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

4 pages using revtex, submitted to Annals of Physics