Radiative Transfer and Limb Darkening of Accretion Disks

Abstract

Transfer equation in a geometrically thin accretion disk is reexamined under the plane-parallel approximation with finite optical depth. Emergent intensity is analytically obtained in the cases with or without internal heating. For large or infinite optical depth, the emergent intensity exhibits a usual limb-darkening effect, where the intensity linearly changes as a function of the direction cosine. For small optical depth, on the other hand, the angle-dependence of the emergent intensity drastically changes. In the case without heating but with uniform incident radiation at the disk equator, the emergent intensity becomes isotropic for small optical depth. In the case with uniform internal heating, the limb brightening takes place for small optical depth. We also emphasize and discuss the limb-darkening effect in an accretion disk for several cases.