Image Details
Caption: Figure 4.
Schematic of the radiative feedback mechanism on the Bondi boundary conditions. Accretion luminosity Lacc produced near the PBH (central black circle) escapes the Bondi sphere (blue circle; radius rB) and is absorbed by the ambient stellar plasma just outside it, raising the local temperature from T∞ to T∞ + ΔT (orange shading). The deposited energy is transported outward by photon diffusion (brown dashed arrows) and when the radiative gradient exceeds the adiabatic gradient, by convection modeled via mixing-length theory (MLT; red circulation loops). Gray arrows indicate the infalling gas that feeds the Bondi flow. The resulting temperature enhancement reduces the effective sound speed contrast and moderates the accretion rate.
© 2026. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.