Hyperaccreting black-hole disk

A hyperaccreting black-hole disk has an accretion rate so large that photon cooling can be trapped and neutrino emission can dominate the cooling of its hot dense inner region. Such disks are models for the central engines of some gamma-ray bursts.

A neutrino-dominated accretion flow is a hot, dense accretion disk in which weak-interaction emission removes much of the dissipated energy. At extreme accretion rates, escaping photons can become inefficient at cooling the inner gas, while reactions involving nucleons and leptons emit neutrinos. Hyperaccreting black holes have therefore been investigated as engines for gamma-ray bursts. Whether cooling wins over inward energy transport depends on the flow parameters; the name describes a regime, not every rapidly accreting disk.^[ref]