A Polytropic Model of an Accretion Disk, a Boundary Layer, and a Star
Abstract
A model of a thin polytropic disk accretion onto a polytropic star through a polytropic boundary layer is analyzed and a one-parameter series of models is calculated with the stellar angular velocity varying from small to somewhat supercritical values along the series. It is demonstrated that there is no limit to the amount of mass that can be accreted from a disk onto a star. The dimensionless accretion rate of angular momentum changes sign when the rotation becomes somewhat supercritical. As long the rotation is subcritical, this rate is almost constant, but when the angular velocity of the star exceeds the critical value by just 0.5 percent, its value drops dramatically.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- April 1991
- DOI:
- 10.1086/169846
- Bibcode:
- 1991ApJ...370..597P
- Keywords:
-
- Accretion Disks;
- Binary Stars;
- Hydrodynamics;
- Polytropic Processes;
- Stellar Mass Accretion;
- Stellar Rotation;
- Angular Momentum;
- Angular Velocity;
- Boundary Layers;
- Stellar Models;
- Astrophysics;
- HYDRODYNAMICS;
- STARS: ACCRETION;
- STARS: BINARIES