Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar

ABSTRACT: I will review our present understanding of super-Eddington atmospheres, as borne from theory and observations. In particular, I will show how atmospheres can sustain super-Eddington fluxes, while accelerating only ``moderate'' mass loss. This will then be applied to the modeling of super-Eddington accretion disks. Such models can have net accretion which is super-critical and a net luminosity which is super-Eddington.