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At least 343 records · Page 19
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Large-Drop Ice Accretion Test Results for a Large Scale Swept Wing Section

In-flight icing is an important consideration that affects aircraft design, performance and safety. Newer regulations combined with increasing demand to reduce fuel burn, emissions and noise are driving a need for improvements in icing simulation capability. To that end, this paper presents the results of ice accretion testing conducted in the NASA Icing Research Tunnel on a large swept wing typical of a modern commercial transport. The model was based upon a section of the Common Research Model wing at the 64% semispan station with a streamwise chord length of 136 in. The test conditions were developed with an icing scaling analysis to generate similar conditions for a small MVD = 25 μm and a large MVD = 110 μm. A series of tests were conducted over a range of total temperature from -23.8 ˚C to -1.4 ˚C with all other conditions held constant. The results for the small MVD cloud conditions were consistent with previous work and showed the changing ice morphology from rime ice at colder temperatures to highly 3D scallop ice in the range of -8.7 ˚C to -3.8 ˚C. The results for the large MVD cloud conditions exhibited some differences in the ice accretion morphology. Scallop-like ice features were observed at total temperature of -3.8˚C. The large MVD ice accretion at lower temperatures tended to be smoother than the corresponding ice accretion for small MVD. The thickness of the main ice shape tended to be larger for the small MVD conditions compared to the corresponding large MVD ice shape while the latter had more ice farther downstream. The measured ice mass was approximately equal between the corresponding small and large MVD ice shapes up to a freezing fraction of 0.6. For higher freezing fraction, the large MVD ice shapes weighed more. Cloud MVD variation from 50 μm to 230 μm while holding the scaling parameters constant resulted in very minor differences in the ice shapes, mostly in the upper and lower surface chordwise extents. Ice volume was computed from 3D scan data and used to calculate a ratio of ice mass to volume. The resulting values were in the range of 240 to 455 Kg/m3. While this is consistent with analogous values previously reported in the literature, more data are needed to determine a specific trend in this ratio as a function of freezing fraction and the corresponding governing physical phenomena. This work has resulted in a significant experimental database of ice accretion for small and large MVD conditions applicable to large-scale swept wings.

Icing↗
NASA NTRS2021

Preventing Anomalous Torques in Circumbinary Accretion Simulations

Numerical experiments are the primary method of studying the evolution of circumbinary disks due to the strong nonlinearities involved. Many circumbinary simulations also require the use of numerical mass sinks: source terms that prevent gas from unphysically accumulating around the simulated point masses by removing gas at a given rate. However, special care must be taken when drawing physical conclusions from such simulations to ensure that results are not biased by numerical artifacts. We demonstrate how improved sink methods reduce some of these biases, using simulations of aspect ratio 0.1 accretion disks around binaries with mass ratios between 0.1 and 1. We show that sink terms that do not reduce the angular momentum of gas relative to the accreting object (1) reduce the dependence on the sink rate of quantities such as the torque on the binary, distribution of accretion between binary components, and evolution of the binary semimajor axis; (2) reduce the degree to which the sink rate affects the structure of the accretion disks around each binary component; (3) alter the variability of accretion onto the binary, regularizing it in time. We also investigate other potential sources of systematic error, such as gravitational softening and simplifications to the viscous stress tensor. Because of the strong dependence of binary orbital evolution on both the torque and the distribution of mass between binary components, the sink method influences the orbital evolution of the binary at all mass ratios, with mass ratios below ∼0.3 most affected.

Alexander Dittmann↗
NASA NTRS2021

Spin and Accretion Rate Dependence of Black Hole X-Ray Spectra

We present a survey of how the spectral features of black hole X-ray binary systems depend on spin, accretion rate, viewing angle, and Fe abundance when predicted on the basis of first-principles physical calculations. The power-law component hardens with increasing spin. The thermal component strengthens with increasing accretion rate. The Compton bump is enhanced by higher accretion rate and lower spin. The Fe Kα equivalent width grows sublinearly with Fe abundance. Strikingly, the Kα profile is more sensitive to accretion rate than to spin because its radial surface brightness profile is relatively flat, and higher accretion rate extends the production region to smaller radii. The overall radiative efficiency is at least 30%–100% greater than as predicted by the Novikov–Thorne model.

Brooks E Kinch↗
DOE OSTI2016

INTERFERENCE AS AN ORIGIN OF THE PEAKED NOISE IN ACCRETING X-RAY BINARIES

We propose a physical model for the peaked noise in the X-ray power density spectra of accreting X-ray binaries. We interpret its appearance as an interference of two Comptonization continua: one coming from the upscattering of seed photons from the cold thin disk and the other fed by the synchrotron emission of the hot flow. Variations of both X-ray components are caused by fluctuations in mass accretion rate, but there is a delay between them corresponding to the propagation timescale from the disk Comptonization radius to the region of synchrotron Comptonization. If the disk and synchrotron Comptonization are correlated, the humps in the power spectra are harmonically related and the dips between them appear at frequencies related as odd numbers 1:3:5. If they are anti-correlated, the humps are related as 1:3:5, but the dips are harmonically related. Similar structures are expected to be observed in accreting neutron star binaries and supermassive black holes. The delay can be easily recovered from the frequency of peaked noise and further used to constrain the combination of the viscosity parameter and disk height-to-radius ratio α ( H / R ){sup 2} of the accretion flow. We model multi-peak power spectra of black hole X-ray binaries GX 339–4 and XTE J1748–288 to constrain these parameters.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Disk–Jet Connection in Active Supermassive Black Holes in the Standard Accretion Disk Regime

We study the disk–jet connection in supermassive black holes by investigating the properties of their optical and radio emissions utilizing the SDSS DR7 and the NVSS catalogs. Our sample contains 7017 radio-loud quasars with detection both at 1.4 GHz and SDSS optical spectra. Using this radio-loud quasar sample, we investigate the correlation among the jet power (${P}_{\mathrm{jet}}$), the bolometric disk luminosity (${L}_{\mathrm{disk}}$), and the black hole mass (${M}_{\mathrm{BH}}$) in the standard accretion disk regime. We find that the jet powers correlate with the bolometric disk luminosities as $\mathrm{log}{P}_{\mathrm{jet}}=(0.96\pm 0.012)\mathrm{log}{L}_{\mathrm{disk}}+(0.79\pm 0.55)$. This suggests the jet production efficiency of ${\eta }_{\mathrm{jet}}\simeq {1.1}_{-0.76}^{+2.6}\,\times {10}^{-2}$ assuming the disk radiative efficiency of 0.1, implying low black hole spin parameters and/or low magnetic flux for radio-loud quasars. But it can be also due to the dependence of this efficiency on the geometrical thickness of the accretion flow, which is expected to be small for quasars accreting at the disk Eddington ratios $0.01\lesssim \lambda \lesssim 0.3$. This low jet production efficiency does not significantly increase even if we set the disk radiative efficiency to be 0.3. We also investigate the fundamental plane in our samples among ${P}_{\mathrm{jet}}$, ${L}_{\mathrm{disk}}$, and ${M}_{\mathrm{BH}}$. In conclusion, we could not find a statistically significant fundamental plane for radio-loud quasars in the standard accretion regime.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

General-relativistic Resistive Magnetohydrodynamics with Robust Primitive-variable Recovery for Accretion Disk Simulations

Recent advances in black hole astrophysics, particularly the first visual evidence of a supermassive black holeat the center of the galaxy M87 by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), and the detection of an orbiting “hot spot”nearby the event horizon of Sgr A* in the Galactic center by the Gravity Collaboration, require the developmentof novel numerical methods to understand the underlying plasma microphysics. Non-thermal emission related tosuch hot spots is conjectured to originate from plasmoids that form due to magnetic reconnection in thin currentlayers in the innermost accretion zone. Resistivity plays a crucial role in current sheet formation, magneticreconnection, and plasmoid growth in black hole accretion disks and jets. We included resistivity in the three-dimensional general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) codeBHACand present the implementationof an Implicit-Explicit scheme to treat the stiff resistive source terms of the GRMHD equations. The algorithmis tested in combination with adaptive mesh refinement to resolve the resistive scales and a constrained transportmethod to keep the magnetic field solenoidal. Several novel methods for primitive variable recovery, a key part inrelativistic magnetohydrodynamics codes, are presented and compared for accuracy, robustness, and efficiency.We propose a new inversion strategy that allows for resistive-GRMHD simulations of low gas-to-magneticpressure ratio and highly magnetized regimes as applicable for black hole accretion disks, jets, and neutron starmagnetospheres. We apply the new scheme to study the effect of resistivity on accreting black holes, accountingfor dissipative effects as reconnection

(magnetohydrodynamics:) MHD↗
DOE OSTI2017

Accretion shocks in the laboratory: Design of an experiment to study star formation

Here, we present the design of a laboratory-astrophysics experiment to study magnetospheric accretion relevant to young, pre-main-sequence stars. Spectra of young stars show evidence of hotspots created when streams of accreting material impact the surface of the star and create shocks. The structures that form during this process are poorly understood, as the surfaces of young stars cannot be spatially resolved. Our experiment would create a scaled "accretion shock" at a major (several kJ) laser facility. The experiment drives a plasma jet (the "accretion stream") into a solid block (the "stellar surface"), in the presence of a parallel magnetic field analogous to the star's local field.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

ACCRETION RATES OF MOONLETS EMBEDDED IN CIRCUMPLANETARY PARTICLE DISKS

We examine the gravitational capture probability of colliding particles in circumplanetary particle disks and accretion rates of small particles onto an embedded moonlet, using analytic calculation, three-body orbital integrations, and N-body simulations. Expanding our previous work, we take into account the Rayleigh distribution of particles' orbital eccentricities and inclinations in our analytic calculation and orbital integration and confirm agreement between them when the particle velocity dispersion is comparable to or larger than their mutual escape velocity and the ratio of the sum of the physical radii of colliding particles to their mutual Hill radius (r-tilde{sub p}) is much smaller than unity. As shown by our previous work, the capture probability decreases significantly when the velocity dispersion is larger than the escape velocity and/or r-tilde{sub p}{approx}>0.7. Rough surfaces of particles can enhance the capture probability. We compare the results of three-body calculations with N-body simulations for accretion of small particles by an embedded moonlet and find agreement at the initial stage of accretion. However, when particles forming an aggregate on the moonlet surface nearly fill the Hill sphere, the aggregate reaches a quasi-steady state with a nearly constant number of particles covering the moonlet, and the accretion rate is significantly reduced compared to the three-body results.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Black hole mass, jet power, and accretion in AGNs

We study the relation between accretion, black hole mass, and jet power in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) using a large group of blazars detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope and radio galaxies. Our main results are as follows. (1) The jet power of flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and the FRII high-excitation galaxy (HEG) depends on the black hole mass, which suggests that the FSRQs and FRII HEG are in the radiation-pressure-dominated regime. The jet power of BL Lacs and the FRI low-excitation galaxy (LEG) depends on the accretion, which suggests that the BL Lacs and FRI LEG are in the gas-pressure-dominated regime. (2) We find that most of FSRQs and BL Lacs have P{sub jet}>L{sub BZ}{sup max}, which suggests that the Blandford–Znajek mechanism is insufficient to explain the jet power of these objects. (3) The FSRQs are roughly separated from BL Lacs by Ledlow–Owenʼs dividing line in the log P{sub jet}−logM plane, which supports the unified scheme of AGNs. (4) The FSRQs and BL Lacs have a clear division at L{sub bol}/L{sub Edd}∼0.01, and the distribution of Eddington ratios of BL Lacs and FSRQs exhibits a bimodal nature, which implies that the accretion mode of FSRQs may be different from that of BL Lacs. (5) We find a significant correlation between broad-line luminosity and jet power, which supports a direct tight connection between jet power and accretion.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

EVOLUTION OF WARPED ACCRETION DISKS IN ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI. I. ROLES OF FEEDING AT THE OUTER BOUNDARIES

We investigate the alignment processes of spinning black holes and their surrounding warped accretion disks in a frame of two different types of feeding at the outer boundaries. We consider (1) fixed flows in which gas is continually fed with a preferred angular momentum, and (2) free flows in which there is no gas supply and the disks diffuse freely at their outer edges. As expected, we find that for the cases of fixed flows the black hole disk systems always align on timescales of several 10{sup 6} yr, irrespective of the initial inclinations. If the initial inclination angles are larger than {pi}/2, the black hole accretion transits from retrograde to prograde fashion, and the accreted mass onto the black holes during these two phases is comparable. On the other hand, for the cases of free flows, both alignments and anti-alignments can occur, depending on the initial inclinations and the ratios of the angular momentum of the disks to that of the black holes. In such cases, the disks will be consumed within timescales of 10{sup 6} yr by black holes accreting at the Eddington limit. We propose that there is a close connection between the black hole spin and the lifetime for which the feeding persists, which determines the observable episodic lifetimes of active galactic nuclei. We conclude that careful inclusion of the disk feeding at the outer boundaries is crucial for modeling the evolution of the black hole spin.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

VARIABLE ACCRETION OUTBURSTS IN PROTOSTELLAR EVOLUTION

We extend the one-dimensional, two-zone models of long-term protostellar disk evolution with infall of Zhu et al. to consider the potential effects of a finite viscosity in regions where the ionization is too low for the magnetorotational instability (MRI) to operate (the {sup d}ead zone{sup )}. We find that the presence of a small but finite dead zone viscosity, as suggested by simulations of stratified disks with MRI-active outer layers, can trigger inside-out bursts of accretion, starting at or near the inner edge of the disk, instead of the previously found outside-in bursts with zero dead zone viscosity, which originate at a few AU in radius. These inside-out bursts of accretion bear a qualitative resemblance to the outburst behavior of one FU Ori object, V1515 Cyg, in contrast to the outside-in burst models, which more closely resemble the accretion events in FU Ori and V1057 Cyg. Our results suggest that the type and frequency of outbursts are potentially a probe of transport efficiency in the dead zone. Simulations must treat the inner disk regions, R {approx}< 0.5 AU, to show the detailed time evolution of accretion outbursts in general and to observe the inside-out bursts in particular.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

THE ORIGIN OF DUST IN EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR ACCRETION ONTO SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES

We have conducted an archival Spitzer study of 38 early-type galaxies in order to determine the origin of the dust in approximately half of this population. Our sample galaxies generally have good wavelength coverage from 3.6 {mu}m to 160 {mu}m, as well as visible-wavelength Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images. We use the Spitzer data to estimate dust masses, or establish upper limits, and find that all of the early-type galaxies with dust lanes in the HST data are detected in all of the Spitzer bands and have dust masses of {approx}10{sup 5}-10{sup 6.5} M{sub Sun }, while galaxies without dust lanes are not detected at 70 {mu}m and 160 {mu}m and typically have <10{sup 5} M{sub Sun} of dust. The apparently dust-free galaxies do have 24 {mu}m emission that scales with the shorter-wavelength flux, yet substantially exceeds the expectations of photospheric emission by approximately a factor of three. We conclude this emission is dominated by hot, circumstellar dust around evolved stars that does not survive to form a substantial interstellar component. The order-of-magnitude variations in dust masses between galaxies with similar stellar populations rule out a substantial contribution from continual, internal production in spite of the clear evidence for circumstellar dust. We demonstrate that the interstellar dust is not due to purely external accretion, unless the product of the merger rate of dusty satellites and the dust lifetime is at least an order of magnitude higher than expected. We propose that dust in early-type galaxies is seeded by external accretion, yet the accreted dust is maintained by continued growth in externally accreted cold gas beyond the nominal lifetime of individual grains. The several Gyr depletion time of the cold gas is long enough to reconcile the fraction of dusty early-type galaxies with the merger rate of gas-rich satellites. As the majority of dusty early-type galaxies are also low-luminosity active galactic nuclei and likely fueled by this cold gas, their lifetime should similarly be several Gyr.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

THE BURST MODE OF ACCRETION IN PRIMORDIAL PROTOSTARS

We study the formation and long-term evolution of primordial protostellar disks harbored by first stars using numerical hydrodynamics simulations in the thin-disk limit. The initial conditions are specified by pre-stellar cores with distinct mass, angular momentum, and temperature. This allows us to probe several tens of thousand years of the disk's initial evolution, during which we observe multiple episodes of fragmentation leading to the formation of gravitationally bound gaseous clumps within spiral arms. These fragments are torqued inward due to gravitational interaction with the spiral arms on timescales of 10{sup 3}-10{sup 4} yr and accreted onto the growing protostar, giving rise to accretion and luminosity bursts. The burst phenomenon is fueled by continuing accretion of material falling onto the disk from the collapsing parent core, which replenishes the mass lost by the disk due to accretion, and triggers repetitive episodes of disk fragmentation. We show that the burst phenomenon is expected to occur for a wide spectrum of initial conditions in primordial pre-stellar cores and speculate on how the intense luminosities ({approx}10{sup 7} L{sub Sun }) produced by this mechanism may have important consequences for the disk evolution and subsequent growth of the protostar.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

WIND-DRIVEN ACCRETION IN PROTOPLANETARY DISKS. I. SUPPRESSION OF THE MAGNETOROTATIONAL INSTABILITY AND LAUNCHING OF THE MAGNETOCENTRIFUGAL WIND

We perform local, vertically stratified shearing-box MHD simulations of protoplanetary disks (PPDs) at a fiducial radius of 1 AU that take into account the effects of both Ohmic resistivity and ambipolar diffusion (AD). The magnetic diffusion coefficients are evaluated self-consistently from a look-up table based on equilibrium chemistry. We first show that the inclusion of AD dramatically changes the conventional picture of layered accretion. Without net vertical magnetic field, the system evolves into a toroidal field dominated configuration with extremely weak turbulence in the far-UV ionization layer that is far too inefficient to drive rapid accretion. In the presence of a weak net vertical field (plasma {beta} {approx} 10{sup 5} at midplane), we find that the magnetorotational instability (MRI) is completely suppressed, resulting in a fully laminar flow throughout the vertical extent of the disk. A strong magnetocentrifugal wind is launched that efficiently carries away disk angular momentum and easily accounts for the observed accretion rate in PPDs. Moreover, under a physical disk wind geometry, all the accretion flow proceeds through a strong current layer with a thickness of {approx}0.3H that is offset from disk midplane with radial velocity of up to 0.4 times the sound speed. Both Ohmic resistivity and AD are essential for the suppression of the MRI and wind launching. The efficiency of wind transport increases with increasing net vertical magnetic flux and the penetration depth of the FUV ionization. Our laminar wind solution has important implications on planet formation and global evolution of PPDs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

WIND-DRIVEN ACCRETION IN PROTOPLANETARY DISKS. II. RADIAL DEPENDENCE AND GLOBAL PICTURE

Non-ideal magnetohydrodynamical effects play a crucial role in determining the mechanism and efficiency of angular momentum transport as well as the level of turbulence in protoplanetary disks (PPDs), which are the key to understanding PPD evolution and planet formation. It was shown in our previous work that at 1 AU, the magnetorotational instability (MRI) is completely suppressed when both ohmic resistivity and ambipolar diffusion (AD) are taken into account, resulting in a laminar flow with accretion driven by magnetocentrifugal wind. In this work, we study the radial dependence of the laminar wind solution using local shearing-box simulations. The scaling relation on the angular momentum transport for the laminar wind is obtained, and we find that the wind-driven accretion rate can be approximated as M-dot approx. 0.91 x 10{sup -8}R{sub AU}{sup 1.21}(B{sub p}/10 mG){sup 0.93} M{sub Sun} yr{sup -1}, where B{sub p} is the strength of the large-scale poloidal magnetic field threading the disk. The result is independent of disk surface density. Four criteria are outlined for the existence of the laminar wind solution: (1) ohmic resistivity dominated the midplane region, (2) the AD-dominated disk upper layer, (3) the presence of a (not too weak) net vertical magnetic flux, and (4) sufficiently well-ionized gas beyond the disk surface. All these criteria are likely to be met in the inner region of the disk from {approx}0.3 AU to about 5-10 AU for typical PPD accretion rates. Beyond this radius, the angular momentum transport is likely to proceed due to a combination of the MRI and disk wind, and eventually completely dominated by the MRI (in the presence of strong AD) in the outer disk. Our simulation results provide key ingredients for a new paradigm on the accretion processes in PPDs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

EVIDENCE OF HOT HIGH VELOCITY PHOTOIONIZED PLASMA FALLING ON ACTIVELY ACCRETING T TAURI STARS

The He II (1640 Å) line and the resonance doublet of N V (UV1) provide a good diagnostic tool to constrain the excitation mechanism of hot (T{sub e} > 40,000 K) atmospheric/magnetospheric plasmas in T Tauri stars (TTSs). Making use of the data available in the Hubble Space Telescope archive, this work shows that there are at least two distinct physical components contributing to the radiation in these tracers: the accretion flow sliding on the magnetosphere and the atmosphere. The N V profiles in most sources are symmetric and at rest with respect to the star. The velocity dispersion of the profile increases from non-accreting (σ = 40 km s{sup –1}) to accreting (σ = 120 km s{sup –1}) TTSs, suggesting that the macroturbulence field in the line formation region decreases as the stars approach the main sequence. Evidence of the N V line being formed in a hot solar-like wind has been found in RW Aur, HN Tau, and AA Tau. The He II profile has a strong narrow component that dominates the line flux; the dispersion of this component ranges from 20 to 60 km s{sup –1}. Current data suggest that both accretion shocks and atmospheric emission might contribute to the line flux. In some sources, the He II line shows a broad and redward-shifted emission component often accompanied by semiforbidden O III] emission that has a critical electron density of ∼3.4 × 10{sup 10} cm{sup 3}. In spite of their different origins (inferred from the kinematics of the line formation region), N V and He II fluxes are strongly correlated, with only the possible exception of some of the heaviest accretors.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Pre-accretional sorting of grains in the outer solar nebula

Despite their micrometer-scale dimensions and nanogram masses, chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles (CP IDPs) are an important class of extraterrestrial material since their properties are consistent with a cometary origin and they show no evidence of significant post-accretional parent body alteration. Consequently, they can provide information about grain accretion in the comet-forming region of the outer solar nebula. We have previously reported our comparative study of the sizes and size distributions of crystalline silicate and sulfide grains in CP IDPs, in which we found these components exhibit a size-density relationship consistent with having been sorted together prior to accretion. Here we extend our data set and include GEMS (glass with embedded metal and sulfide), the most abundant amorphous silicate phase observed in CP IDPs. We find that while the silicate and sulfide sorting trend previously observed is maintained, the GEMS size data do not exhibit any clear relationship to these crystalline components. Therefore, GEMS do not appear to have been sorted with the silicate and sulfide crystals. The disparate sorting trends observed in GEMS and the crystalline grains in CP IDPs present an interesting challenge for modeling early transport and accretion processes. They may indicate that several sorting mechanisms operated on these CP IDP components, or alternatively, they may simply be a reflection of different source environments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Two-dimensional numerical simulations of supercritical accretion flows revisited

We study the dynamics of super-Eddington accretion flows by performing two-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic simulations. Compared with previous works, in this paper we include the T {sub θφ} component of the viscous stress and consider various values of the viscous parameter α. We find that when T {sub θφ} is included, the rotational speed of the high-latitude flow decreases, while the density increases and decreases at the high and low latitudes, respectively. We calculate the radial profiles of inflow and outflow rates. We find that the inflow rate decreases inward, following a power law form of M-dot {sub in}∝r{sup s}. The value of s depends on the magnitude of α and is within the range of ∼0.4-1.0. Correspondingly, the radial profile of density becomes flatter compared with the case of a constant M-dot (r). We find that the density profile can be described by ρ(r)∝r {sup –p} and the value of p is almost same for a wide range of α ranging from α = 0.1 to 0.005. The inward decrease of inflow accretion rate is very similar to hot accretion flows, which is attributed to the mass loss in outflows. To study the origin of outflow, we analyze the convective stability of the slim disk. We find that depending on the value of α, the flow is marginally stable (when α is small) or unstable (when α is large). This is different from the case of hydrodynamical hot accretion flow, where radiation is dynamically unimportant and the flow is always convectively unstable. We speculate that the reason for the difference is because radiation can stabilize convection. The origin of outflow is thus likely because of the joint function of convection and radiation, but further investigation is required.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗