An Introduction to Accretion Disks

Evelyne Alecian (1, 2)

1 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
2 Etoile

In this chapter I first present the pre-main sequence stars around which accretion disks are observed and summarise the main observed characteristics of the classical T Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be stars. I then review the theoretical and empirical reasons that lead many scientists to conclude that the objects of this class are surrounded by accretion disk. Finally I review the basic characteristics of the disks of these stars, and expose the observations that lead us to derive them.

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]

Evelyne Alecian. An Introduction to Accretion Disks. The Environments of the Sun and the Stars, Lecture Notes in Physics, Volume 857, 857, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, pp.183, 2013, ⟨10.1007/978-3-642-30648-8_7⟩. ⟨hal-03724762⟩