Related papers: Lecture notes on accretion disk physics
In this paper I review and discuss the basic concepts of accretion disks, focused especially on the case of accretion disks around black holes. The well known alpha-model is revisited, showing the strengths and weaknesses of the model.…
This review covers the main aspects of black hole accretion disk theory. We begin with the view that one of the main goals of the theory is to better understand the nature of black holes themselves. In this light we discuss how accretion…
After the initial stage of fast expanding of the hot Universe comes epoch of temperature fall and subsequent formation of dense clouds of hydrogen. Due to process of accretion some of this clouds became compact objects. Initially accretion…
Astrophysical disks are likely embedded in an ambient vertical magnetic field. This ambient field is known to drive magneto-rotational turbulence in the disk bulk but is also responsible for the launching of magnetized outflows at the…
Accretion disk theory was first developed as a theory with the local heat balance, where the whole energy produced by a viscous heating was emitted to the sides of the disk. One of the most important new invention of this theory was the…
Disk accretion may be the fundamental astrophysical process. Stars and planets form through the accretion of gas in a disk. Black holes and galaxies co-evolve through efficient disk accretion onto the central supermassive black hole.…
We derive the evolution equations describing a thin axisymmetric disk of gas and stars with an arbitrary rotation curve that is kept in a state of marginal gravitational instability and energy equilibrium due to the balance between energy…
The conventional accretion disk lore is that magnetized turbulence is the principal angular momentum transport process that drives accretion. However, when dynamically important large-scale magnetic fields thread an accretion disk, they can…
I briefly review the theoretical models of radiatively efficient, geometrically thin and optically thick accretion disk spectra that currently exist for AGN. I then discuss three recent observational developments that have real potential to…
The status of our current understanding of angular momentum transport in accretion disks is reviewed. The last decade has seen a dramatic increase both in the recognition of key physical processes and in our ability to carry through direct…
We investigate the structure and stability of hypercritical accretion flows around stellar-mass black holes, taking into account neutrino cooling, lepton conservation, and firstly a realistic equation of state in order to properly treat the…
We review recent observational and theoretical results on the relationship between circumstellar accretion disks and jets in young stellar objects. We then present a theoretical framework that interprets jets as accretion-powered,…
A geometrically thin, optically thick, warped accretion disk with a central source of luminosity is subject to non-axisymmetric forces due to radiation pressure; the resulting torque acts to modify the warp. In a recent paper, \cite{pri96}…
Throughout the Hubble time, gas makes its way from the intergalactic medium into galaxies fuelling their star formation and promoting their growth. One of the key properties of the accreting gas is its angular momentum, which has profound…
This review article summarizes two decades of laboratory research aimed at understanding the dynamics of accretion disks, with particular emphasis on magnetohydrodynamic experiments involving liquid metals and plasmas. First, the…
We review mechanisms for the transport of angular momentum in accretion disks that are low mass, in the sense that the gravitational forces produced by the material in these disks has a negligible effect on disk dynamics. There is no…
Accretion disk instabilities are briefly reviewed. Some details are given to the short-wavelength thermal instabilities and the convective instabilities. Time-dependent calculations of two-dimensional advection-dominated accretion flows are…
We explore the thermodynamic and global structural properties of a local patch of an accretion disk whose parameters were chosen so that radiation pressure and gas pressure would be comparable in magnitude. Heating, radiative transport, and…
Mass loss appears to be a common phenomenon among disk-accreting astrophysical systems. An outflow emanating from an accretion disk can act as a sink for mass, angular momentum and energy and can therefore alter the dissipation rates and…
We discuss the properties of an accretion disk around a star with parameters typical of classical T Tauri stars (CTTS), and with the average accretion rate for these disks. The disk is assumed steady and geometrically thin. The turbulent…