Nucleosynthesis inside Thick Accretion Disks around a Black Hole. I. Thermodynamic Conditions and Preliminary Analysis

The authors use an approximate analytic theory of a thick accretion disk to derive the thermodynamic conditions which prevail inside the disk as a function of the black hole mass, the viscosity parameter, and the accretion rate. From these thermodynamic conditions it is shown that, for a given mechanism for viscosity, the nuclear burning is substantially greater when the central black hole is less massive. The authors also perform a preliminary analysis of the main nuclear processes which can occur inside a thick disk.