Does the Mass Accretion Rate Depend On the Radius of the Accreting Star?

Details Does the Mass Accretion Rate Depend On the Radius of the Accreting Star? Does the Mass Accretion Rate Depend On the Radius of the Accreting Star?

2000-10-18

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0010348v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

11 pages, 1 figure, submitted to ApJL

Scientific paper

10.1086/318913

In some circumstances, the mass accretion rate M^dot onto a compact star may depend not only on external boundary conditions, but also on the radius R of the star. Writing the dependence as a power-law in which M^dot is proportional to R^p, we estimate the power-law index, p, for transient binary systems in a quiescent state. We use the observed luminosities $L$ of accreting neutron stars (R=10^6 cm) in soft X-ray transients and white dwarfs (R=10^9 cm) in similar cataclysmic variables, and estimate M^dot in each system through the relation L=(GM/R)*M^dot, where M is the mass of the star. From the available data we infer that p~0.9+-0.5. This radial dependence is consistent with radiatively inefficient accretion flows that either are convective or lose mass via a wind.

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