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Accretion Disks and Star Formation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

Suzy Collin  and
Jean-Paul Zahn
Suzy Collin
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris, Section de Meudon, Place Jansen, 92195 Meudon, France
Jean-Paul Zahn
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris, Section de Meudon, Place Jansen, 92195 Meudon, France

Abstract

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It is generally admitted that at distances larger than ˜ 104 gravitational radii accretion disks in AGN form a torus made of high velocity gaseous interacting clouds with a small filling factor. We propose here a completely different model for this region, in which unstable fragments give rise to protostars, all becoming massive stars after a rapid stage of accretion. These stars explode as supernovae, which produce strong outflows perpendicular to the disk and induce an outward transfer of angular momentum, as shown by the numerical simulations of Rozyczka, Bodenheimer and Lin (1995). So the supernovae themselves can sustain the inflow mass rate required by the AGN. Assuming that the star formation rate is proportional to the growth rate of the gravitational instabilities, one obtains a self-regulated accretion disk made of gas and stars in which the gas is maintained in a state close to gravitational instability. We show that the gaseous disk is able to support a large number of massive stars and supernovae while staying relatively homogeneous. This model could explain the high velocity metal enriched outflows implied by the presence of the broad absorption lines in quasars. It could also account for a pregalactic enrichment of the intergalactic medium, if black holes formed early in the Universe. Finally it could provide a triggering mechanism for starbursts in the central regions of galaxies.

Type
III. AGN Theory and Models
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 194: Activity in Galaxies and Related Phenomena , 1999 , pp. 246 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1999 

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