1995/05/04 by D. Syer, Dave Syer, C. J. Clarke +1 · 6 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Accretion disc #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Galaxy #Luminosity #Mechanics and Biomechanics Studies #Physics #Satellite #Spectral energy distribution #Stars #T Tauri star #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/277.3.758
To appear in Monthly Notices, 9 pages PostScript, also available at http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~syer/papers/
arxiv created 1995/05/04 · openalex publication_date 1995/12/01 · arxiv updated 2015/06/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We demonstrate, using a simple analytic model, that the presence of a massive satellite can globally modify the structure and emission properties of an accretion disc to which it is tidally coupled. We show, using two levels of numerical approximation, that the analytic model gives reasonable results. The results are applicable to two astrophysical situations. For an active galactic nucleus, we consider the case of a ~ 103 M⊙ compact companion to the central black hole, and show that it could modulate the emitted spectrum on a time-scale of ~ 105 yr. In the case of a T Tauri accretion disc, a satellite such as a subdwarf or giant planet could modify the disc spectral energy distribution over a substantial fraction of the T Tauri star lifetime.