The Eddington Luminosity Limit for Multiphased Media

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Abstract
We consider the effective Eddington luminosity in a locally inhomogeneous medium by averaging out the coarse, small-scale behavior. We show that the ratio between the emitted flux and the average radiation force changes. The mean luminosity therefore can theoretically exceed the classical Eddington limit. It is further shown that acoustic modes are unstable under most relevant conditions, and they unavoidably grow in such a way that they change the effective limiting Eddington luminosity. The instability and the increased limiting luminosity can explain the observed super-Eddington luminosity phenomenon in novae.