Related papers: Hot-spot model for accretion disc variability as r…
In this chapter, I present a summary of observational tests of the basic picture of disk accretion. An emphasis is placed on tests relevant to black holes, but many of the fundamental results are drawn from studies of other classes of…
Many statistical properties of the aperiodic variability observed in X-ray radiation from accreting compact objects can be naturally explained by the propagating fluctuations model. This considers variations in mass accretion rate to be…
(abridged) We review how the recent increase in X-ray and radio data from black hole and neutron star binaries can be merged together with theoretical advances to give a coherent picture of the physics of the accretion flow in strong…
We have developed 1D time-dependent numerical models of accretion discs, using an adaptive grid technique and an implicit numerical scheme, in which the disc size is allowed to vary with time. The code fully resolves the cooling and heating…
Spatially selective melting of metal materials by laser irradiation allows for the precise welding as well as the 3D printing of complex metal parts. However, the simple scanning of a conventional Gaussian beam typically results in a melt…
Accretion discs are present around both stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries and supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei. A wide variety of circumstantial evidence implies that many of these discs are warped. The standard…
The sources of wall-pressure fluctuations in turbulent channel flow are studied using a novel framework. The wall-pressure power spectral density (PSD) $(\phi_{pp}(\omega))$ is expressed as an integrated contribution from all wall-parallel…
Context. Quasi-periodic variability has been observed in a number of X-ray binaries harboring black hole candidates. In general relativity, black holes are uniquely described by the Kerr metric and, according to the cosmic censorship…
Transonic discs with accretion rates relevant to intrinsically bright Galactic X-ray sources ($L\approx 10^{38}$-$10^{39} {\rm erg s}^{-1}$) exhibit a time dependent cyclic behaviour due to the onset of a thermal instability driven by…
We use data obtained with the PCA onboard RXTE to analyze the spectral variations of the black hole candidate and superluminal source GRS 1915+105. Our results suggest that despite the complicated structure of the X-ray light curve, all…
In this paper we explore numerically the evolution of a warped accretion disc. Here, we focus here on the regime where the warp evolves diffusively. By comparing the numerical results to a simple diffusion model, we are able to determine…
We study power density spectra (PDS) of X-ray flux variability in binary systems where the accretion flow is truncated by the magnetosphere. PDS of accreting X-ray pulsars where the neutron star is close to the corotation with the accretion…
Global 3-D magnetohydrodynamical simulations have been conducted to study magnetospheric accretion around stars with various spin rates. For slow rotators, characterized by a fastness parameter $\omega_s\lesssim 0.78$, the disk's inner edge…
Irradiation of the accretion disc causes reflection signatures in the observed X-ray spectrum, encoding important information about the disc structure and density. A Type I X-ray burst will strongly irradiate the accretion disc and alter…
This thesis investigates phenomena occurring in black-hole accretion discs which are likely to induce high-frequency quasi-periodic variability. Two classes of pseudo-relativistic theoretical models are studied. The first is based on the…
Optical emission from actively accreting X-ray binaries is dominated by X-ray reprocessing on the outer disk. In the regime of supercritical accretion, strong radiation will power a massive wind that is optically thick and nearly spherical,…
We investigate the time evolution of luminous accretion disks around black holes, conducting the two-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic simulations. We adopt the alpha prescription for the viscosity. The radial-azimuthal component of…
The standard thin accretion disk model has been successfully used to explain the soft X-ray spectra of Galactic black hole systems and perhaps the UV emission of Active Galactic Nuclei. However, radiation pressure dominated disks are known…
We develop a simple, time-dependent Comptonization model to probe the origins of spectral variability in accreting neutron star systems. In the model, soft ``seed photons'' are injected into a corona of hot electrons, where they are Compton…
We review the current understanding of accretion flows around compact objects with a special emphasis on advective disks. We discuss the influence of the centrifugal pressure supported high density region around compact objects (where…