Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-17T07:21:42.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Accretion Disks and Star Formation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

Suzy Collin  and
Jean-Paul Zahn
Suzy Collin
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris, Section de Meudon, Place Jansen, 92195 Meudon, France
Jean-Paul Zahn
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris, Section de Meudon, Place Jansen, 92195 Meudon, France

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.

It is generally admitted that at distances larger than ˜ 104 gravitational radii accretion disks in AGN form a torus made of high velocity gaseous interacting clouds with a small filling factor. We propose here a completely different model for this region, in which unstable fragments give rise to protostars, all becoming massive stars after a rapid stage of accretion. These stars explode as supernovae, which produce strong outflows perpendicular to the disk and induce an outward transfer of angular momentum, as shown by the numerical simulations of Rozyczka, Bodenheimer and Lin (1995). So the supernovae themselves can sustain the inflow mass rate required by the AGN. Assuming that the star formation rate is proportional to the growth rate of the gravitational instabilities, one obtains a self-regulated accretion disk made of gas and stars in which the gas is maintained in a state close to gravitational instability. We show that the gaseous disk is able to support a large number of massive stars and supernovae while staying relatively homogeneous. This model could explain the high velocity metal enriched outflows implied by the presence of the broad absorption lines in quasars. It could also account for a pregalactic enrichment of the intergalactic medium, if black holes formed early in the Universe. Finally it could provide a triggering mechanism for starbursts in the central regions of galaxies.

Type
III. AGN Theory and Models
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 194: Activity in Galaxies and Related Phenomena , 1999 , pp. 246 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1999 

References

Artymowicz, P., Lin, D.N. and Wampler, E.J., 1993, ApJ 409, 592 Google Scholar
Begelman, M.C., Frank, J., Shlosman, I., 1989, in “Theory of Accretion disks”, eds. Meyer, F. et al., Kluwer Academic Publishers Google Scholar
Chandrasekhar, S., 1939, “An introduction to stellar structure” Google Scholar
Collin, S., Huré, J.M., 1998, in press in A&A Google Scholar
Collin, S., 1998, to appear in the proceedings of the Conference “From atomic nuclei to galaxies”, held in Haifa, Israel, Physics Reports, Ed. Regev, O. Google Scholar
Collin, S., Zahn, J.P., 1998, A&A, submitted Google Scholar
Goldreich, P., Lynden-Bell, D. 1965, MNRAS 130, 97 Google Scholar
Goldreich, P., Tremaine, S., 1980, ApJ 241, 425 Google Scholar
Hamann, F., 1997, ApJS 109, 279 Google Scholar
Hamann, F., Ferland, G., 1992, ApJ 391, 53 Google Scholar
Huré, J.M., 1998, in press in A&A Google Scholar
Kolykhalov, P.I., Sunyaev, R.A., 1980, Soviet Astron. Lett. 6, 357 Google Scholar
Lin, D.N.C., Papaloizou, J.C.B., 1980a, ApJ 307, 395 Google Scholar
Lin, D.N.C., Papaloizou, J.C.B., 1980b, ApJ 309, 846 Google Scholar
Malkan, M.A., Sargent, W.L.W., 1982, ApJ 254, 22 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paczynski, B., 1978, AcA, 28, 91 Google Scholar
Rozyczka, M., Bodenheimer, P., Lin, D.N.C., 1995, MNRAS 276, 597 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shakura, N.I., Sunyaev, R.A., 1973, A&A 24, 337 Google Scholar
Shields, G.A., 1978, Nature 272, 423 Google Scholar
Shlosman, I., Begelman, M.C., 1989, ApJ 341, 685 Google Scholar
Shlosman, I., Frank, J., Begelman, M.C., 1989, Nature 338, 45 Google Scholar
Silk, J., Rees, M.J., 1998, A&A 331, L1 Google Scholar
Soltan, A., 1982, MNRAS 200, 115 Google Scholar
Toomre, A., 1964, ApJ 139, 1217 Google Scholar
Wang, B., Silk, J., 1994, ApJ 427, 759 Google Scholar
Ward, W., 1986, Icarus 67, 164 Google Scholar
Ward, W., 1988, Icarus 73, 330 Google Scholar