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Fragmentation of Supermassive Disks

Abstract

Supermassive rotating disks, invoked by some models for quasars and active nuclei of galaxies, are unstable against fragmentation. A hierarchy of successive fragmentation into smaller and smaller pieces is described. Questions are raised about pulsar-like and gravitational radiation, which become important at the later stages of fragmentation.

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SALPETER, E. Fragmentation of Supermassive Disks. Nature Physical Science 233, 5–7 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/physci233005a0

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