Disk Modeling: Arts and Phenomenology

摘要

This article summarizes the focus session on disk modeling arts and phenomenology, which was devoted to the types of interesting physics a disk modeler may wish to include, arid how best to include it. It is assumed that the modeling goal is to guide the process of falsification of various hypotheses with data accessible by existing and planned observations. Appropriate modeling choices depend on the conditions and aspects of the problem under study, but the expectation is that observations will yield to correct interpretation only when the key physics is properly understood, and effectively simulated in the models. This focus review first sketches several potentially relevant phenomena that disk modelers may wish to incorporate, especially in regard to the role of magnetic vs. inertial support of disks, and the source of disk angular momentum. It then concludes with some comments on effective numerical modeling strategies for incorporating these effects.