Shakura-Sunyaev model

astrophysics

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July 20, 2026

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The Shakura-Sunyaev model, developed by Nikolay Shakura and Rashid Sunyaev, describes how matter accretes onto a black hole. This process involves the formation of an accretion disk, a disklike flow of gas, plasma, dust, or particles that spirals inward due to the gravitational pull of the central object.12

As matter in the disk loses energy and angular momentum, it gradually falls towards the black hole. This accretion process is highly efficient at converting gravitational potential energy into radiation, powering some of the most energetic phenomena in the universe, such as quasars and X-ray binaries. The Shakura-Sunyaev model became a foundational theory for understanding cataclysmic variable stars and quasars.21

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Rashid Sunyaev
The Shakura-Sunyaev model became the basis for much of the subsequent theoretical work that described cataclysmic variable stars and quasars.
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The Shakura-Sunyaev model became the basis for much of the subsequent theoretical work that described cataclysmic variable stars and quasars.
Read More