Massive Accretion Disks
| dc.creator | Scoville, N. Z. | |
| dc.date | 1999-03-18 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T02:30:53Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T02:30:53Z | |
| dc.description | Recent high resolution near infrared (HST-NICMOS) and mm-interferometric imaging have revealed dense gas and dust accretion disks in nearby ultra-luminous galactic nuclei. In the best studied ultraluminous IR galaxy, Arp 220, the 2 micron imaging shows dust disks in both of the merging galactic nuclei and mm-CO line imaging indicates molecular gas masses approx. 10^9 M_sun for each disk. The two gas disks in Arp 220 are counterrotating and their dynamical masses are approx. 2x10^9 M_sun, that is, only slightly larger than the gas masses. These disks have radii approx 100 pc and thickness 10-50 pc. The high brightness temperatures of the CO lines indicate that the gas in the disks has area filling factors of approx. 25-50% and mean densities of >~ 10^4 cm^(-3). Within these nuclear disks, the rate of massive star formation is undoubtedly prodigious and, given the high viscosity of the gas, there will also be high radial accretion rates, perhaps >~ 10 M_sun/yr. If this inflow persists to very small radii, it is enough to feed even the highest luminosity AGNs. | |
| dc.description | LaTex, 6 pages with 1 postscript and 1 jpg figure, and 1 postscript table, To appear in the proc. of the Ringberg workshop on "Ultraluminous Galaxies: Monsters or Babies" (Ringberg castle, Sept. 1998), Ap&SS, in press | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9903273 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9903273 | |
| dc.identifier | Astrophys.Space Sci. 266 (1999) 149-155 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/13974 | |
| dc.subject | Astrophysics | |
| dc.title | Massive Accretion Disks | |
| dc.type | text |