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General Overview of Black Hole Accretion Theory

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The Physics of Accretion onto Black Holes

Part of the book series: Space Sciences Series of ISSI ((SSSI,volume 49))

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Abstract

I provide a broad overview of the basic theoretical paradigms of black hole accretion flows. Models that make contact with observations continue to be mostly based on the four decade old alpha stress prescription of Shakura and Sunyaev (1973), and I discuss the properties of both radiatively efficient and inefficient models, including their local properties, their expected stability to secular perturbations, and how they might be tied together in global flow geometries. The alpha stress is a prescription for turbulence, for which the only existing plausible candidate is that which develops from the magnetorotational instability (MRI). I therefore also review what is currently known about the local properties of such turbulence, and the physical issues that have been elucidated and that remain uncertain that are relevant for the various alpha-based black hole accretion flow models.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA

    Omer Blaes

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  1. Omer Blaes
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland

    Maurizio Falanga

  2. The National Institute of Astrophysics, Merate, Italy

    Tomaso Belloni

  3. The National Institute of Astrophysics, Rome, Italy

    Piergiorgio Casella

  4. Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching, Germany

    Marat Gilfanov

  5. Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Peter Jonker

  6. University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Andrew King

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Blaes, O. (2013). General Overview of Black Hole Accretion Theory. In: Falanga, M., Belloni, T., Casella, P., Gilfanov, M., Jonker, P., King, A. (eds) The Physics of Accretion onto Black Holes. Space Sciences Series of ISSI, vol 49. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2227-7_3

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