Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T14:39:16.481Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Gravitational Radius of an Irradiated Disk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2013

Kurt Liffman*
Affiliation:
School of Mathematical Sciences, Monash University, Clayton Vic 3168, Australia Energy and Thermofluids Engineering, CSIRO/MIT, Highett Vic 3190, AustraliaKurt.Liffman@csiro.au
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We derive an updated, analytic formula for the gravitational radius, rg, of an irradiated, thin disk. For such a disk, the region outside the gravitational radius will produce a thermal wind, while the region interior to the gravitational radius will be stable. We find that rg ≈ 1.4 (M*/M)/(T0/104K) AU. The value of 1.4 AU is approximately one fifth of currently used values.

The analysis uses the adiabatic approximation. We argue that the same formula applies for the non-adiabatic, isothermal case.

Type
Sixth Torino Workshop
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 2003

References

Begelman, M. C., McKee, C. F., & Shields, G. A. 1983, ApJ 271, 70 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollenbach, D., Johnstone, D., Lizano, S., & Shu, F. 1994, ApJ, 428, 654 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woods, D. T., Klein, R. I., Castor, J. I., McKee, C. F., & Bell, J. B. 1996, ApJ, 461, 767 CrossRefGoogle Scholar