{"paper":{"title":"Spectral Appearance of Self-gravitating Disks Powered by Stellar Objects: Universal Effective Temperature in the Optical Continuum and Application to Little Red Dots","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"Self-gravitating accretion disks around compact objects reach a fixed outer effective temperature of 4000-4500 K independent of accretion rate, mass, or viscosity.","cross_cats":["astro-ph.GA","astro-ph.SR"],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.HE","authors_text":"Bingjie Wang, Eliot Quataert, Hanpu Liu, Jenny E. Greene, Jeremy Goodman, Ruancun Li, Yan-Fei Jiang, Yilun Ma, Yi-Xian Chen","submitted_at":"2026-02-06T18:51:45Z","abstract_excerpt":"We revisit the spectral appearance of extended self-gravitating accretion disks surrounding compact central objects such as supermassive black holes. Using dust-poor opacities, we show that all optically thick disk solutions possess a universal outer effective temperature of $T_{\\rm eff}\\sim 4000-4500$K, closely resembling compact, high-redshift sources known as Little Red Dots (LRDs). Assuming the extended disk is primarily heated by stellar sources, this ``disk Hayashi limit\" fixes the dominant optical continuum temperature of the disk spectrum independent of accretion rate $\\dot{M}$, centra"},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"all optically thick disk solutions possess a universal outer effective temperature of T_eff ∼ 4000-4500 K ... this ``disk Hayashi limit'' fixes the dominant optical continuum temperature of the disk spectrum independent of accretion rate Ṁ, central mass M_•, and disk viscosity α","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"Assuming the extended disk is primarily heated by stellar sources ... Using dust-poor opacities","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"Self-gravitating disks heated by stars reach a universal optical effective temperature of 4000-4500 K independent of accretion rate, black hole mass, and viscosity, explaining Little Red Dots.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"Self-gravitating accretion disks around compact objects reach a fixed outer effective temperature of 4000-4500 K independent of accretion rate, mass, or viscosity.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"71e0dbfe15cc16af1550d0d13f78c182ce69a4b464cea164a77940b5ebf64017"},"source":{"id":"2602.06954","kind":"arxiv","version":3},"verdict":{"id":"51747737-0a03-4a63-a0bb-f75bbad28927","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-16T06:17:27.350178Z","strongest_claim":"all optically thick disk solutions possess a universal outer effective temperature of T_eff ∼ 4000-4500 K ... this ``disk Hayashi limit'' fixes the dominant optical continuum temperature of the disk spectrum independent of accretion rate Ṁ, central mass M_•, and disk viscosity α","one_line_summary":"Self-gravitating disks heated by stars reach a universal optical effective temperature of 4000-4500 K independent of accretion rate, black hole mass, and viscosity, explaining Little Red Dots.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"Assuming the extended disk is primarily heated by stellar sources ... Using dust-poor opacities","pith_extraction_headline":"Self-gravitating accretion disks around compact objects reach a fixed outer effective temperature of 4000-4500 K independent of accretion rate, mass, or viscosity."},"references":{"count":94,"sample":[{"doi":"10.3847/1538-4357/ade984","year":2025,"title":"Akins, H. B., Casey, C. M., Lambrides, E., et al. 2025, ApJ, 991, 37, doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ade984","work_id":"998294a1-dc8b-4cca-9c19-c1fe64467656","ref_index":1,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"10.1093/mnras/stad2774","year":2023,"title":"Ali-Dib, M., & Lin, D. N. C. 2023, MNRAS, doi: 10.1093/mnras/stad2774 16Chen et al","work_id":"1f292748-b62d-4590-9b1a-3d409659f8c5","ref_index":2,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"10.3847/1538-4357/aadc11","year":2018,"title":"2018, The Astrophysical Journal, 866, 84, doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/aadc11","work_id":"186ab470-82c7-4b8b-a544-5d28bdb6105d","ref_index":3,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"10.48550/arxiv.2601.10573","year":2026,"title":"Origins of the UV continuum and Balmer emission lines in Little Red Dots: observational validation of dense gas envelope models enshrouding the AGN","work_id":"17119633-e3c8-4915-a6cc-48f7a07e8901","ref_index":4,"cited_arxiv_id":"2601.10573","is_internal_anchor":true},{"doi":"10.48550/arxiv.2512.03239","year":2025,"title":"Baggen, J. F. W., van Dokkum, P., Labb´ e, I., & Brammer, G. 2025, arXiv e-prints, arXiv:2512.03239, doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2512.03239","work_id":"1eb76b1e-70f8-40e1-987b-a982035911ca","ref_index":5,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false}],"resolved_work":94,"snapshot_sha256":"fa74e108c714c892965622ad7f2f39a7bac551a2d0e79b3ea8cb102771f4f49e","internal_anchors":5},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}