Black hole accretion discs
Abstract
This is an introduction to models of accretion discs around black holes. After a presentation of the non-relativistic equations describing the structure and evolution of geometrically thin accretion discs we discuss their steady-state solutions and compare them to observation. Next we describe in detail the thermal-viscous disc instability model and its application to dwarf novae for which it was designed and its X-ray irradiated-disc version which explains the soft X--ray transients, i.e. outbursting black-hole low-mass X-ray binaries. We then turn to the role of advection in accretion flows onto black holes illustrating its action and importance with a toy model describing both ADAFs and slim discs. We conclude with a presentation of the general-relativistic formalism describing accretion discs in the Kerr space-time.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1505.02172,
title = {Black hole accretion discs},
author = {Jean-Pierre Lasota},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1505.02172},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
41 pages, 11 figures, Chapter 1 in: "Astrophysics of Black Holes - From fundamental aspects to latest developments", Ed. Cosimo Bambi, Springer: Astrophysics and Space Science Library 440 (2016). Minor errors corrected