The diffusion of contaminant through an accretion disc
Abstract
The authors calculate the manner in which a trace contaminant diffuses through an accretion disc. For a steady disc in which the ratio of diffusivity to viscosity, ζ, is taken to be constant through the disc and for which the surface density distribution is taken to be a power law (Σ ∝ R-α) the authors present analytic solutions to the time-dependent equations governing contaminant evolution. They calculate the amount of contaminant which can diffuse its way outwards against the bulk inward accretion flow and show that this is a sensitive function of α and ζ.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- November 1988
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/235.2.365
- Bibcode:
- 1988MNRAS.235..365C
- Keywords:
-
- Accretion Disks;
- Computational Astrophysics;
- Angular Momentum;
- Chemical Evolution;
- Density Distribution;
- Diffusion;
- Radial Flow;
- Time Dependence;
- Trace Contaminants;
- Viscosity;
- Astrophysics