Last edited 6 days ago by Elenceq

Accretion disc

Image taken by Hubble space

telescope of what may be gas
accreting onto a black hole in
elliptical galaxy NGC 4261

An accretion disk is a structure (often a circumstellar disk) formed by

diused material in orbital motion around a massive central body. The
central body is typically a star. Gravity causes material in the disc to
spiral inward towards the central body. Gravitational and frictional
forces compress and raise the temperature of the material causing the
emission of electromagnetic radiation. The frequency range of that
radiation depends on the central object's mass. Accretion discs of
young stars and protostars radiate in the infrared; those around
neutron stars and black holes in the X-ray part of the spectrum. The
study of oscillation modes in accretion discs is referred to as
diskoseismology.[1][2]

Contents
Manifestations
Accretion disc physics
-Disc Model

Magnetorotational instability
Magnetic elds and jets
Analytic models of sub-Eddington accretion discs (thin discs,
ADAFs)
Analytic models of super-Eddington accretion discs (slim discs,
Polish doughnuts)
Excretion disc
See also
References
External links

Manifestations
List of unsolved problems in physics
Accretion disc jets: Why do the discs surrounding certain objects,
such as the nuclei of active galaxies, emit jets along their polar
axes? These jets are invoked by astronomers to do everything from
getting rid of angular momentum in a forming star to reionizing the
universe (in active galactic nuclei), but their origin is still not well
understood.
Accretion discs are a ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysics; active
galactic nuclei, protoplanetary discs, and gamma ray bursts all involve
accretion discs. These discs very often give rise to astrophysical jets
coming from the vicinity of the central object. Jets are an ecient way
for the star-disc system to shed angular momentum without losing too
much mass.
The most spectacular accretion discs found in nature are those of
active galactic nuclei and of quasars, which are believed to be massive
black holes at the center of galaxies. As matter follows the tendex line
into a black hole, the intense gravitational gradient gives rise to

intense frictional heating; the accretion disc of a black hole is hot

enough to emit X-rays just outside of the event horizon. The large
luminosity of quasars is believed to be a result of gas being accreted
by supermassive black holes (Lynden-Bell, 1969).[3]Elliptical accretion
discs formed at tidal disruption of stars can be typical in galactic nuclei
and quasars (Gurzadyan and Ozernoy, 1979). [4] Accretion process can
convert about 10 percent to over 40 percent of the mass of an object
into energy as compared to around 0.7 percent for nuclear fusion
processes.[5]
In close binary systems the more massive primary component evolves
faster and has already become a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black
hole, when the less massive companion reaches the giant state and
exceeds its Roche lobe. A gas ow then develops from the companion
star to the primary. Angular momentum conservation prevents a
straight ow from one star to the other and an accretion disc forms
instead.
Accretion discs surrounding T Tauri stars or Herbig stars are called
protoplanetary discs because they are thought to be the progenitors of
planetary systems. The accreted gas in this case comes from the
molecular cloud out of which the star has formed rather than a
companion star.
animations of black hole accretion

Play media
This animation of supercomputer data takes you
to the inner zone of the accretion disk of a
stellar-mass black hole.

Play media
This video shows an artists impression of the
dusty wind emanating from the black hole at the
centre of galaxy NGC 3783.

Accretion disc physics

Artist's conception of a black hole

drawing matter from a nearby star,
forming an accretion disc.

In the 1940s, models were rst derived from basic physical

principles.[6] In order to agree with observations, those models had to
invoke a yet unknown mechanism for angular momentum
redistribution. If matter is to fall inwards it must lose not only
gravitational energy but also lose angular momentum. Since the total
angular momentum of the disc is conserved, the angular momentum
loss of the mass falling into the center has to be compensated by an
angular momentum gain of the mass far from the center. In other
words, angular momentum should be transported outwards for matter
to accrete. According to the Rayleigh stability criterion,

where

represents the angular velocity of a uid element and

its

distance to the rotation center, an accretion disc is expected to be a

laminar ow. This prevents the existence of a hydrodynamic
mechanism for angular momentum transport.
On one hand, it was clear that viscous stresses would eventually cause
the matter towards the center to heat up and radiate away some of its
gravitational energy. On the other hand, viscosity itself was not enough
to explain the transport of angular momentum to the exterior parts of
the disc. Turbulence-enhanced viscosity was the mechanism thought
to be responsible for such angular-momentum redistribution, although
the origin of the turbulence itself was not well understood. The
conventional
parameter

-model (discussed below) introduces an adjustable

describing the eective increase of viscosity due to

turbulent eddies within the disc.[7][8] In 1991, with the rediscovery of

the magnetorotational instability (MRI), S. A. Balbus and J. F. Hawley
established that a weakly magnetized disc accreting around a heavy,
compact central object would be highly unstable, providing a direct
mechanism for angular-momentum redistribution. [9]

-Disc Model
Shakura and Sunyaev (1973)[7] proposed turbulence in the gas as the
source of an increased viscosity. Assuming subsonic turbulence and
the disc height as an upper limit for the size of the eddies, the disc
viscosity can be estimated as
is the disc height, and

where

is the sound speed,

is a free parameter between zero (no

accretion) and approximately one. In a turbulent medium

, where

is the velocity of turbulent cells relative to

the mean gas motion, and

which is estimated as

is the size of the largest turbulent cells,

and

, where

is the Keplerian orbital angular velocity,

radial distance from the central object of mass

is the

.[10]

By using the equation of hydrostatic equilibrium, combined with

conservation of angular momentum and assuming that the disc is thin,
the equations of disk structure may be solved in terms of the
parameter. Many of the observables depend only weakly on

, so this

theory is predictive even though it has a free parameter.

Using Kramers' law for the opacity it is found that

where

and

respectively.

are the mid-plane temperature and density

is the accretion rate, in units of

mass of the central accreting object in units of a solar mass,

is the radius of a point in the disc, in units of
, where

is the
,

, and

is the radius where angular

momentum stops being transported inwards.

The Shakura-Sunyaev -Disc model is both thermally and viscously
unstable. An alternative model, known as the

-disk, which is stable in

both sense assumes that the viscosity is proportional to the gas

pressure

. [11] [12] In the standard Shakura-Sunyaev model,

viscosity is assumed to be proportional to the total pressure

since
.
The Shakura-Sunyaev model assumes that the disk is in local thermal
equilibrium, and can radiate its heat eciently. In this case, the disk
radiates away the viscous heat, cools, and becomes geometrically thin.
However, this assumption may break down. In the radiatively inecient
case, the disk may "pu up" into a torus or some other threedimensional solution like an Advection Dominated Accretion Flow
(ADAF). The ADAF solutions usually require that the accretion rate is
smaller than a few percent of the Eddington limit. Another extreme is
the case of Saturn's rings, where the disk is so gas poor that its
angular momentum transport is dominated by solid body collisions and
disk-moon gravitational interactions. The model is in agreement with
recent astrophysical measurements using gravitational lensing.[13][14]
[15][16]

Magnetorotational instability
Main article: Magnetorotational instability

HH-30, a HerbigHaro object

surrounded by an accretion disc

Balbus and Hawley (1991)[9] proposed a mechanism which involves

magnetic elds to generate the angular momentum transport. A simple
system displaying this mechanism is a gas disc in the presence of a
weak axial magnetic eld. Two radially neighboring uid elements will
behave as two mass points connected by a massless spring, the spring
tension playing the role of the magnetic tension. In a Keplerian disc
the inner uid element would be orbiting more rapidly than the outer,
causing the spring to stretch. The inner uid element is then forced by
the spring to slow down, reduce correspondingly its angular
momentum causing it to move to a lower orbit. The outer uid element
being pulled forward will speed up, increasing its angular momentum
and move to a larger radius orbit. The spring tension will increase as
the two uid elements move further apart and the process runs
away.[17]
It can be shown that in the presence of such a spring-like tension the
Rayleigh stability criterion is replaced by

Most astrophysical discs do not meet this criterion and are therefore
prone to this magnetorotational instability. The magnetic elds present
in astrophysical objects (required for the instability to occur) are
believed to be generated via dynamo action.[18]

Magnetic elds and jets

Accretion discs are usually assumed to be threaded by the external
magnetic elds present in the interstellar medium. These elds are
typically weak (about few micro-Gauss), but they can get anchored to
the matter in the disc, because of its high electrical conductivity, and
carried inward toward the central star. This process can concentrate
the magnetic ux around the centre of the disc giving rise to very
strong magnetic elds. Formation of powerful astrophysical jets along
the rotation axis of accretion disks requires a large scale poloidal
magnetic eld in the inner regions of the disc.[19]
Such magnetic elds may be advected inward from the interstellar
medium or generated by a magnetic dynamo within the disk. Magnetic
elds strengths at least of order 100 Gauss seem necessary for the
magneto-centrifugal mechanism to launch powerful jets. There are
problems, however, in carrying external magnetic ux inward towards
the central star of the disc.[20] High electric conductivity dictates that
the magnetic eld is frozen into the matter which is being accreted
onto the central object with a slow velocity. However, the plasma is not
a perfect electric conductor, so there is always some degree of
dissipation. The magnetic eld diuses away faster than the rate at
which it is being carried inward by accretion of matter.[21]
A simple solution is assuming a viscosity much larger than the
magnetic diusivity in the disc. However, numerical simulations, and
theoretical models, show that the viscosity and magnetic diusivity
have almost the same order of magnitude in most accretion discs. [22]
Some other factors may possibly aect the advection/diusion rate:
meridional circulation within the disk; reduced turbulent magnetic
diusion; the inuence of a mean eld magnetic eld on the ShakuraSunyaev viscosity;[23] and the generation of large scale elds by small
scale MHD turbulence a large scale dynamo.

Analytic models of sub-Eddington

accretion discs (thin discs, ADAFs)

When the accretion rate is sub-Eddington and the opacity very high,
the standard thin accretion disc is formed. It is geometrically thin in
the vertical direction (has a disc-like shape), and is made of a relatively
cold gas, with a negligible radiation pressure. The gas goes down on
very tight spirals, resembling almost circular, almost free (Keplerian)
orbits. Thin discs are relatively luminous and they have thermal
electromagnetic spectra, i.e. not much dierent from that of a sum of
black bodies. Radiative cooling is very ecient in thin discs. The
classic 1974 work by Shakura and Sunyaev on thin accretion discs is
one of the most often quoted papers in modern astrophysics. Thin
discs were independently worked out by Lynden-Bell, Pringle and Rees.
Pringle contributed in the past thirty years many key results to
accretion disc theory, and wrote the classic 1981 review that for many
years was the main source of information about accretion discs, and is
still very useful today.

Simulation by J.A. Marck of optical appearance of

Schwarzschild black hole with thin (Keplerian)
disc.

A fully general relativistic treatment, as needed for the inner part of the
disc when the central object is a black hole, has been provided by Page
and Thorne ,[24] and used for producing simulated optical images by
Luminet [25] and Marck,[26] in which it is to be noted that, although
such a system is intrinsically symmetric its image is not, because the
relativistic rotation speed needed for centrifugal equilibrium in the very
strong gravitational eld near the black hole produces a strong
Doppler redshift on the receding side (taken here to be on the right)
whereas there will be a strong blueshift on the approaching side. It is
also to be noted that due to light bending, the disc appears distorted
but is nowhere hidden by the black hole (in contrast with what is
shown in the misinformed artist's impression presented below).

When the accretion rate is sub-Eddington and the opacity very low, an
ADAF is formed. This type of accretion disc was predicted in 1977 by
Ichimaru. Although Ichimaru's paper was largely ignored, some
elements of the ADAF model were present in the inuential 1982
ion-tori paper by Rees, Phinney, Begelman and Blandford. ADAFs
started to be intensely studied by many authors only after their
rediscovery in the mid-1990 by Narayan and Yi, and independently by
Abramowicz, Chen, Kato, Lasota (who coined the name ADAF), and
Regev. Most important contributions to astrophysical applications of
ADAFs have been made by Narayan and his collaborators. ADAFs are
cooled by advection (heat captured in matter) rather than by radiation.
They are very radiatively inecient, geometrically extended, similar in
shape to a sphere (or a "corona") rather than a disc, and very hot
(close to the virial temperature). Because of their low eciency, ADAFs
are much less luminous than the Shakura-Sunyaev thin discs. ADAFs
emit a power-law, non-thermal radiation, often with a strong Compton
component.
Blurring of an X-ray source (corona) near a Black hole.

NASA artist's misinformed concept of corona over black hole that is

(wrongly) shown to hide part of the disc (as would a material body in
at space).[27]

Blurring of X-rays near Black hole (NuSTAR; 12

August 2014).[27]
Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech

Analytic models of super-Eddington

accretion discs (slim discs, Polish
doughnuts)
The theory of highly super-Eddington black hole accretion, M>>M Edd,
was developed in the 1980s by Abramowicz, Jaroszynski, Paczyski,
Sikora and others in terms of "Polish doughnuts" (the name was
coined by Rees). Polish doughnuts are low viscosity, optically thick,
radiation pressure supported accretion discs cooled by advection.
They are radiatively very inecient. Polish doughnuts resemble in
shape a fat torus (a doughnut) with two narrow funnels along the
rotation axis. The funnels collimate the radiation into beams with
highly super-Eddington luminosities.
Slim discs (name coined by Kolakowska) have only moderately superEddington accretion rates, MMEdd, rather disc-like shapes, and almost
thermal spectra. They are cooled by advection, and are radiatively
ineective. They were introduced by Abramowicz, Lasota, Czerny and
Szuszkiewicz in 1988.
List of unsolved problems in physics
Accretion disc QPO's: Quasi-Periodic Oscillations happen in many
accretion discs, with their periods appearing to scale as the inverse

of the mass of the central object. Why do these oscillations exist?

Why are there sometimes overtones, and why do these appear at
dierent frequency ratios in dierent objects?

Excretion disc
The opposite of an accretion disc is an excretion disc where instead of
material accreting from a disc on to a central object, material is
excreted from the center outwards on to the disc. Excretion discs are
formed when stars merge.[28]

See also
Accretion
Astrophysical jet
BlandfordZnajek process
Circumstellar disk
Dynamo Theory
Gravitational singularity
Planetary ring
Solar Nebula
Spin-ip

References
1. ^ Nowak, Michael A.; Wagoner, Robert V. (1991). "Diskoseismology:
Probing accretion disks. I - Trapped adiabatic oscillations".
Astrophysical Journal 378: 656664. Bibcode:1991ApJ...378..656N .
doi:10.1086/170465 .
2. ^ Wagoner, Robert V. (2008). "Relativistic and Newtonian
diskoseismology". New Astronomy Reviews 51 (1012): 828834.
Bibcode:2008NewAR..51..828W .

doi:10.1016/j.newar.2008.03.012 .
3. ^ Lynden-Bell, D. (1969). "Galactic Nuclei as Collapsed Old
Quasars" . Nature 280: 690694.
4. ^ Gurzadyan, V. G.; Ozernoy, L. M. (1979). "Accretion on massive
black holes in galactic nuclei" . Nature 280: 214215.
5. ^ http://www3.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/sta/mmassi
/lezione2WEdd.pdf
6. ^ Weizscker, C. F. (1948), "Die Rotation Kosmischer Gasmassen", Z.
Naturforsch. 3a: 524539, Bibcode:1948ZNatA...3..524W ,
doi:10.1515/zna-1948-8-1118
7. ^ a b Shakura, N. I.; Sunyaev, R. A. (1973), "Black Holes in Binary
Systems. Observational Appearance", Astronomy and Astrophysics 24:
337355, Bibcode:1973A&A....24..337S
8. ^ Lynden-Bell, D.; Pringle, J. E. (1974), "The evolution of viscous
discs and the origin of the nebular variables", Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc.
168: 603637, Bibcode:1974MNRAS.168..603L ,
doi:10.1093/mnras/168.3.603
9. ^ a b Balbus, Steven A.; Hawley, John F. (1991), "A powerful local
shear instability in weakly magnetized disks. I Linear analysis",
Astrophysical Journal 376: 214233, Bibcode:1991ApJ...376..214B ,
doi:10.1086/170270
10. ^ Landau and Lishitz (1959), Fluid Mechanics (31 ed.)
11. ^ Lightman and Eardley, Alan P.; Eardley, Douglas M. (1974),
"Black Holes in Binary Systems: Instability of Disk Accretion", The
Astrophysical Journal, 187: 1, Bibcode:1974ApJ...187L...1L ,
doi:10.1086/181377
12. ^ Piran, T. (1978), "The role of viscosity and cooling mechanisms
in the stability of accretion disks", The Astrophysical Journal, 221: 652,
Bibcode:1978ApJ...221..652P , doi:10.1086/156069
13. ^ Poindexter, Shawn et al. (2008), "The Spatial Structure of An
Accretion Disk", The Astrophysical Journal, 673 (1): 34,
arXiv:0707.0003 , Bibcode:2008ApJ...673...34P ,

doi:10.1086/524190
14. ^ Eigenbrod, A. et al. (2008), "Microlensing variability in the
gravitationally lensed quasar QSO 2237+0305 = the Einstein Cross. II.
Energy prole of the accretion disk", Astronomy & Astrophysics, 490
(3): 933, arXiv:0810.0011 , Bibcode:2008A&A...490..933E ,
doi:10.1051/0004-6361:200810729
15. ^ Mosquera, A. M. et al. (2009), "Detection of chromatic
microlensing in Q 2237+0305 A", The Astrophysical Journal, 691 (2):
1292, arXiv:0810.1626 , Bibcode:2009ApJ...691.1292M ,
doi:10.1088/0004-637X/691/2/1292
16. ^ Floyd, David J. E. et al. (2009), "The accretion disc in the quasar
SDSS J0924+0219", ArXiv:0905.2651v1 [astro-ph.HE] 398: 233,
arXiv:0905.2651 , Bibcode:2009MNRAS.398..233F ,
doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15045.x
17. ^ Balbus, Steven A. (2003), "Enhanced Angular Momentum
Transport in Accretion Disks", Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 41 (1):
555597, arXiv:astro-ph/0306208 ,
Bibcode:2003ARA&A..41..555B ,
doi:10.1146/annurev.astro.41.081401.155207
18. ^ Rdiger, Gnther; Hollerbach, Rainer (2004), The Magnetic
Universe: Geophysical and Astrophysical Dynamo Theory, Wiley-VCH,
ISBN 3-527-40409-0
19. ^ Blandford, Roger; Payne, David (1982). "Hydromagnetic ows
from accretion discs and the production of radio jets". Monthly Notices
of Royal Astronomical Journal 199: 883.
Bibcode:1982MNRAS.199..883B . doi:10.1093/mnras/199.4.883 .
20. ^ Beckwith, K.; Hawley, J. F.; Krolik, J. H. (2009). "TRANSPORT OF
LARGE-SCALE POLOIDAL FLUX IN BLACK HOLE ACCRETION"

(PDF).

Astrophysical Journal 707: 428445. arXiv:0906.2784 .

Bibcode:2009ApJ...707..428B . doi:10.1088/0004-637x
/707/1/428 .
21. ^ Park, Seok Jae; Vishniac, Ethan (1996). "The Variability of
Active Galactic Nuclei and the Radial Transport of Vertical Magnetic

Flux"

(PDF). Astrophysical Journal 471: 158163. arXiv:astro-

ph/9602133 . Bibcode:1996ApJ...471..158P .
doi:10.1086/177959 .
22. ^ Guan, Xiaoyue; Gammie, Charles F. (2009). "THE TURBULENT
MAGNETIC PRANDTL NUMBER OF MHD TURBULENCE IN DISKS"
(PDF). Astrophysical Journal 697: 19011906. arXiv:0903.3757 .

Bibcode:2009ApJ...697.1901G . doi:10.1088/0004-637x/697/2
/1901 .
23. ^ Shakura, N. I.; Sunyaev, R. A (1973). "Black holes in binary
systems. Observational appearance" . Astronomy and Astrophysics
24: 337355. Bibcode:1973A&A....24..337S .
24. ^ D.N. Page, K.S. Thorne, Astroph.J. 191 (1974) p499
25. ^ J.P. Luminet, Astron. Astroph. 75 (1979) p228
26. ^ J.A. Marck, Class. Quant. Grav. 13 (1996) 393
27. ^ a b Clavin, Whitney; Harrington, J.D. (12 August 2014). "NASA's
NuSTAR Sees Rare Blurring of Black Hole Light" . NASA. Retrieved
12 August 2014.
28. ^ A binary merger origin for inated hot Jupiter planets , E.L.
Martin, H.C. Spruit, R. Tata, 9 Sep 2011
Frank, Juhan; Andrew King; Derek Raine (2002), Accretion power in
astrophysics (Third ed.), Cambridge University Press,
ISBN 0-521-62957-8
Krolik, Julian H. (1999), Active Galactic Nuclei, Princeton University
Press, ISBN 0-691-01151-6

External links
Accretion disc

at Encyclopdia Britannica

Professor John F. Hawley homepage

Nonradiative Black Hole Accretion
Accretion Discs on Scholarpedia
Magnetic elds snare black holes' food

New Scientist

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