Accretion Disk Modeling

Accretion disks form in several ways, one of which is when matter spirals into a compact object, either a neutron star or a black hole. Understanding the properties of these disks allow the comparison of models to physical data, thus testing our understanding and possibly allowing us to discover such compact objects in nature.

Steps in our accretion disk modeling project:

1. Developing one or more hydrodynamic codes in Mathematica that will allow for such disks to form.
2. Studying such model disks by varying parameters.
3. Extending the model to include plasma processes.
4. Extending the model top include high energy phenomena.
5. Extending the model to include shocks.
6. Extending the model to self-gravitation, should this be determined to be of importance.
7. Extending the model to be fully general-relativistic.

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