2007/01/29 by A. R. King, J. E. Pringle, M. Livio · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.11556.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.376:1740-1746,2007 · MNRAS, in press
arxiv created 2007/01/29 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We consider observational and theoretical estimates of the accretion disc viscosity parameter α. We find that in thin, fully-ionized discs, the best observational evidence suggests a typical range α∼ 0.1 - 0.4, whereas the relevant numerical simulations tend to derive estimates for α which are an order of magnitude smaller. We discuss possible reasons for this apparent discrepancy.