Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2001-05-09
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ. Please send comments to agol@tapir.caltech.edu
Scientific paper
10.1086/322277
The standard equilibrium for radiation-dominated accretion disks has long been known to be viscously, thermally, and convectively unstable, but the nonlinear development of these instabilities---hence the actual state of such disks---has not yet been identified. By performing local two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of disks, we demonstrate that convective motions can release heat sufficiently rapidly as to substantially alter the vertical structure of the disk. If the dissipation rate within a vertical column is proportional to its mass, the disk settles into a new configuration thinner by a factor of two than the standard radiation-supported equilibrium. If, on the other hand, the vertically-integrated dissipation rate is proportional to the vertically-integrated total pressure, the disk is subject to the well-known thermal instability. Convection, however, biases the development of this instability toward collapse. The end result of such a collapse is a gas pressure-dominated equilibrium at the original column density.
Agol Eric
Krolik Julian
Stone James
Turner Neal
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