The Eddington limit in accretion discs

Recently, the issue of the role of the Eddington limit in accretion discs became a matter of debate. While the classical (spherical) Eddington limit is certainly an over-simplification, it is not really clear how to treat it in a flattened (though not necessarily geometrically very thin) structure like an accretion disc. We present first model calculations which indicate that the allowed mass flow rate differs considerably from what one expects by applying the Eddington limit in its classical form. We will also discuss how these results relate to the formation of jets and/or outflows and to the angular momentum budget in the inner disc regions. In the Figure, we show trajectories of test particles (starting from the disc's surface) in the force field above the accretion disc with a slightly super-Eddington accretion rate.