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Session 76 - Cataclysmic Variables and Accretion Disks.
Display session, Wednesday, January 15
Metropolitan Ballroom,

[76.13] Accretion Disk and Boundary Layer Models Incorporating the OPAL Opacity Table

T. J. B. Collins, H. L. Helfer (U. Rochester), H. M. Van Horn (NSF)

We have constructed vertically-averaged, optically thick boundary layer models for accretion disks in cataclysmic variables. We have compared models constructed using a constant electron-scattering opacity to those computed with a tabulated Rosseland mean opacity. According to the standard analytical accretion disk model, the disk spectrum is independent of the opacity law. We find that the spectrum emitted from the boundary layer is also independent of the opacity law used. However, the central temperature and disk width are significantly different, implying a different thermal timescale and perhaps different oscillation properties.

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