Truncation of geometrically thin disks around massive black holes in galactic nuclei

Abstract

The concept of an advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF), with or without wind loss, was used to describe the spectra of the galactic center source Sgr A*, low-luminosity AGN and nuclei of elliptical galaxies (including M87). The spectral fits of various authors show that the transition from the geometrically thin disk to the hot flow occurs at quite different distances, apparently not uniquely related to the mass flow rate in the disk. We compare these results with the results of theoretical modeling where we determine the truncation of the thin outer disk from the efficiency of mass evaporation. The physics is the same as in the case of galactic black holes systems (Meyer et al. 2000b). For the observationally indicated mass flow rates our model predicts a truncation at 10^3 to 10^4 Schwarzschild radii. We discuss whether far inside this truncation an innermost cool thin disk could exist and affect the spectrum.

5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

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