A generalized solution for advection-dominated accretion flow, standard disc, and slim disc

ABSTRACT Aiming at a general description of four basic solutions describing the accretion processes, i.e. the Shakura–Sunyaev thin disc (SSD), the Shapiro–Lightman–Eardley (SLE) solution, the slim disc, and the advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF), we present generalized axisymmetric height-averaged equations, where the entropy advection, the radiation pressure, and photon trapping effect are all included self-consistently. Our generalized solution can reproduce the ADAF, SLE, SSD, and slim disc branches in a wide range of accretion rates from sub- to super-Eddington accretion. An S-curve in the $\dot{m}{\!-\!}\Sigma$ plane is also reproduced, representing the SSD branch, the radiation-pressure-dominant branch, and the slim disc branch. The solution gives a natural transition between SSD and slim disc when photon trapping occurs in the accretion flow, producing a radially hybrid SSD–slim disc structure in a certain range of accretion rates. The coexistence of ADAF and SSD below a critical accretion rate is clearly shown with distinct advection fraction of accretion energy. We also present the luminosity, radiation efficiency, and spectrum from the generalized solutions for a large range of accretion rates in stellar mass black holes.