Spherical Accretion
Astrophysics
2009-11-11 v1
Abstract
We compare different examples of spherical accretion onto a gravitating mass. Limiting cases include the accretion of a collisionally dominated fluid and the accretion of collisionless particles. We derive expressions for the accretion rate and density profile for semi-collisional accretion which bridges the gap between these limiting cases. Particle crossing of the Hill sphere during the formation of the outer planets is likely to have taken place in the semi-collisional regime.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0603293,
title = {Spherical Accretion},
author = {Re'em Sari and Peter Goldreich},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0603293},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
ApJ Letters, 3 pages