The nature of angular momentum transport in radiative self-gravitating protostellar discs

• Published in: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. 410; no. 2; pp. 994 - 1006
• Main Authors: Forgan, Duncan, Rice, Ken, Cossins, Peter, Lodato, Giuseppe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2011; Wiley-Blackwell; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: accretion; accretion discs; accretion, accretion discs; Astronomy; Astrophysics; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Fluid mechanics; gravitation; Gravity; instabilities; Protostars; stars: formation; stars: general; Viscosity; stars: formation; gravitation; stars: general; accretion, accretion discs; instabilities; Viscosity; Angular momentum transfer; Gravitation; Cooling rate; Smoothed particle hydrodynamics method; Evolution equation; Star accretion; Parameterization; Aspect ratio; Accretion disks; Star formation; Stellar mass; Gravitational instability; Mass ratio; Models; Self-gravitating systems; Radiative transfer; LTE

Semi-analytic models of self-gravitating discs often approximate the angular momentum transport generated by the gravitational instability using the phenomenology of viscosity. This allows the employment of the standard viscous evolution equations, and gives promising results. It is, however, still...