Viscosity in Selfgravitating Accretion Disks
Loading...
Date
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Description
We show that the standard model for geometrically thin accretion disks (alpha-disks) leads to inconsistencies if selfgravity plays a role. This problem arises from the parametrization of viscosity in terms of local sound velocity and vertical disk scale height. A viscosity prescription based on turbulent flows at the critical effective Reynolds number allows for consistent models of thin selfgravitating disks, and recovers the alpha-disk solution as the limiting case of negligible selfgravity. We suggest that such selfgravitating disks may explain the observed spectra of protoplanetary disks and yield a natural explanation for the radial motions inferred from the observed metallicity gradients in disk galaxies.
10 pages, LaTeX, AAS 2 column preprint style (aas2pp4.sty), submitted to ApJ
10 pages, LaTeX, AAS 2 column preprint style (aas2pp4.sty), submitted to ApJ