Slim Accretion Disks

A new branch of equilibrium solutions for stationary accretion disks around black holes is found. These solutions correspond to moderately super-Eddington accretion rates. The existence of the new branch is a consequence of an additional cooling due to general relativistic Roche lobe overflow and horizontal advection of heat. On an accretion rate versus surface density plane the new branch forms, together with the two 'standard' branches (corresponding to the Shakura-Sunyaev accretion disk models) a characteristically S-shaped curve. This could imply a limit cycle-type behavior for black hole accretion flows with accretion rates close ot the Eddington one.