Consequences of Rotation In Energetics of Accretion Disks

A synthesis on recent results about rotating turbulence is done. They prove that rotation tends to inhibit energy transfer from large scales to small scales because of the generation of strong inertial waves aligned with the rotation axis. Implications on the theory of turbulent transport in accretion disks are discussed. It is argued that the concept of turbulent viscosity should be revisited to take into account the possibility of non-local transport by large scale wave-dominated turbulence. An "energetic puzzle" resulting from a possible inverse cascade of energy is brought out. Various solutions to solve it are suggested and are linked to currently available observations. New prescriptions for turbulent dissipation in the presence of rotation or large scale waves are given. Special emphasis is put on compressibility effects, for which a detailed analysis of dissipation processes is provided and translated in term of turbulent viscosities. When the turbulence is strongly influenced by the rotation, most of the energy is transported by sonic waves. The corresponding turbulent viscosity is computed numerically for several types of disks. A universal model for thin accretion disks is suggested in relation with the results.