2000/04/06 by W. J. Duschl, Wolfgang J. Duschl, P. A. Strittmatter +5 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0004076
10 pages, no figures, accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics
arxiv created 2000/04/06 · openalex publication_date 2000/04/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We propose a generalized accretion disk viscosity prescription based on hydrodynamically driven turbulence at the critical effective Reynolds number. This approach is consistent with recent re-analysis by Richard & Zahn (1999) of experimental results on turbulent Couette-Taylor flows. This new β-viscosity formulation is applied to both selfgravitating and non-selfgravitating disks and is shown to yield the standard α-disk prescription in the case of shock dissipation limited, non-selfgravitating disks. A specific case of fully selfgravitating β-disks is analyzed. We suggest that such disks may explain the observed spectra of protoplanetary disks and yield a natural explanation for the radial motions inferred from the observed metallicity gradients in disk galaxies. The β-mechanism may also account for the rapid mass transport required to power ultra luminous infrared galaxies.