Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/iii/paper-321/1/b/ii/solution

Use characteristic, vertically averaged quantities at fixed radius. Let be a disk thickness, , and let the alpha disk prescription give , up to a convention-dependent constant. From the preceding radiation pressure and constant-opacity balance, is independent of ; thus
Vertical hydrostatic equilibrium gives , hence
The vertically averaged kinematic viscosity satisfies . Consequently
At fixed radius the omitted factors are independent of , so this is the requested inverse-density scaling of the viscous torque in an accretion disk.
This is an order-of-magnitude vertical model, as requested. Imposing both exact pointwise and exact pointwise would force to be constant, contrary to nontrivial vertical hydrostatic equilibrium. The characteristic-pressure prescription supplies a scaling, not an exact simultaneous vertical solution to all those idealized equations.

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