Roche Potential with Luminous Accretion Disks

Abstract

The radiative environments of an interacting binary, which contains a luminous accretion disk, are investigated. The disk radiation field has no effect in the direction of the orbital plane, while it significantly affects in the polar direction. As the disk luminosity increases, the Roche potential around the compact star becomes hollow in the polar direction. It further crashes toward the pole, and a cone of avoidance appears at the normalized luminosity $\Gamma_\mathrm{d} \equiv L_\mathrm{d}/L_\mathrm{E} =0.5$, where $L_\mathrm{d}$ is the disk luminosity and $L_\mathrm{E}$ the Eddington luminosity of the compact star. The disk corona, the wind-fed accretion flow, and the common envelope suffer a remarkable influence by the luminous disk in active binaries. Of these, the wind-fed accretion is briefly discussed.