Bibcode
Elitzur, Moshe; Asensio-Ramos, A.; Ceccarelli, Cecilia
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 422, Issue 2, pp. 1394-1402.
Advertised on:
5
2012
Citations
11
Refereed citations
10
Description
Double-peaked line profiles are commonly considered a hallmark of
rotating discs, with the distance between the peaks a measure of the
rotation velocity. However, double-peaks can arise also from radiative
transfer effects in optically thick non-rotating sources. Utilizing
exact solutions of the line transfer problem we present a detailed study
of line emission from geometrically thin Keplerian discs. We derive the
conditions for emergence of kinematic double peaks in optically thin and
thick discs, and find that it is generally impossible to disentangle the
effects of kinematics and line opacity in observed double-peaked
profiles. Unless supplemented by additional information, a double-peaked
profile alone is not a reliable indicator of a rotating disc. In certain
circumstances, triple and quadruple profiles might be better indicators
of rotation in optically thick discs.
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