Negative-hydrogen-opacity alpha-disk thickness scaling

ID: negative-hydrogen-opacity-alpha-disk-thickness-scaling

Let for constant mean molecular weight in proton-mass units, and let be the Stefan–Boltzmann constant in the Stefan–Boltzmann law. The gas sound speed used here satisfies , and is the local orbital frequency. For the local opacity approximation , a gas-supported optically thick alpha disk has and . Integrated viscous heating is . Radiative diffusion gives . Equating the fluxes proves the thickness scaling. At fixed composition and , it gives and in Keplerian rotation. Radial powers therefore require a surface-density profile; they are not determined by opacity alone. The formula is local to the stated opacity regime and small disk aspect ratio.

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