MECHANISM OF OUTFLOWS IN ACCRETION SYSTEM: ADVECTIVE COOLING CANNOT BALANCE VISCOUS HEATING?

Journal Article · Tue Jan 20 04:00:00 EST 2015 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/799/1/71· OSTI ID:22364488

Gu, Wei-Min ^[1]

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1. Department of Astronomy and Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361005 (China)

Based on the no-outflow assumption, we investigate steady-state, axisymmetric, optically thin accretion flows in spherical coordinates. By comparing the vertically integrated advective cooling rate with the viscous heating rate, we find that the former is generally less than 30% of the latter, which indicates that the advective cooling itself cannot balance the viscous heating. As a consequence, for radiatively inefficient flows with low accretion rates such as M-dot ≲10{sup −3} M-dot {sub Edd}, where M-dot {sub Edd} is the Eddington accretion rate, the viscous heating rate will be larger than the sum of the advective cooling rate and the radiative cooling one. Thus, no thermal equilibrium can be established under the no-outflow assumption. We therefore argue that in such cases outflows ought to occur and take away more than 70% of the thermal energy generated by viscous dissipation. Similarly, for optically thick flows with extremely large accretion rates such as M-dot ≳10 M-dot {sub Edd}, outflows should also occur owing to the limited advection and the low efficiency of radiative cooling. Our results may help to understand the mechanism of outflows found in observations and numerical simulations.

• OSTI ID: 22364488
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 799; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ACCRETION DISKS
ADVECTION
AXIAL SYMMETRY
BLACK HOLES
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
EFFICIENCY
HEATING RATE
HYDRODYNAMICS
RADIATIVE COOLING
SPHERICAL CONFIGURATION
STARS
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS
STELLAR WINDS
THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM