Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 12, 2026

Setting Limits on Supersymmetry Using Simplified Models
Published on: November 15, 2013
Super-Critical Accretion onto Stellar Mass Black Holes and Neutron Stars: A Short Review
M Middleton1, G Lipunova2,3, K Ohsuga4
1School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ UK.
Abstract:
Super-critical accretion is of both theoretical and observational importance. Theoretically first established by Shakura & Sunyaev in 1973, studies of this accretion regime has since evolved to encompass vital aspects such as advection, surface effects (neutron stars) and the interplay between the plasma, magnetic fields and radiation in full numerical GR-(R)MHD. In this short review of the subject, we present the underlying analytical theory, observational predictions and the role of numerical simulations, with a focus on super-Eddington accretion onto stellar mass black holes and neutron stars. We then discuss observational progress and tensions, and suggestions for how the field might progress in the coming years.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Detection of Black Holes
Their closest cousins are neutron stars, which are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed against each other, making them extremely dense. A neutron star has the same mass as the Sun but its diameter is only a few kilometers. Therefore, the escape velocity from their surface is close to the speed of light.
Not until the 1960s, when the first neutron...
Schwarzschild Radius and Event Horizon
The minimum speed required to launch a projectile from the surface of an object to which it is gravitationally bound so that it eventually escapes the object’s gravitational field is called the escape velocity. The escape velocity is independent of the mass of the object. Merging the idea of escape velocity with the...
Gravitation Between Spherically Symmetric Masses
Space-Time Curvature and the General Theory of Relativity
This has been verified in many experiments. However, space and time are no longer absolute. Two observers moving relative to one another do not agree on the length of objects or the passage of time. The mechanics of objects based on Newton's laws of motion,...
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Relaxation Processes
Radiation: Applications
The average...

