Relativistic Outflows from Advection-dominated Accretion Disks around Black Holes

Advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAFs) have a positive Bernoulli parameter, and are therefore gravitationally unbound. The Newtonian ADAF model has been generalized recently to obtain the ADIOS model that includes outflows of energy and angular momentum, thereby allowing accretion to proceed self-consistently. However, the utilization of a Newtonian gravitational potential limits the ability of this model to describe the inner region of the disk, where any relativistic outflows are likely to originate. In this paper we modify the ADIOS scenario to incorporate a pseudo-Newtonian potential, which approximates the effects of general relativity. The analysis yields a unique, self-similar solution for the structure of the coupled disk/wind system. Interesting features of the new solution include the relativistic character of the outflow in the vicinity of the radius of marginal stability, which represents the inner edge of the also Department of Physics and Astronomy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA; [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]