Related papers: A synchrotron self-Compton -- disk reprocessing mo…
GX~339$-$4 is a black hole X-ray binary that is a key focus of accretion studies since it goes into outburst roughly every two-to-three years. Tracking of its radio, IR and X-ray flux during multiple outbursts reveals tight broadband…
Multi-wavelength observations of the black hole X-ray binary XTE J1118+480 have offered abundant spectral and timing information about the source, and have thus provided serious challenges to theoretical models. We propose a coupled…
Accreting black holes show a complex and diverse behaviour in their soft spectral states. Although these spectra are dominated by a soft, thermal component which almost certainly arises from an accretion disc, there is also a hard X-ray…
Radiation emitted from an accretion disk around a massive black hole is a widely discussed model for the UV/soft X-ray excess emission observed in the spectra of many AGN. A self-consistent calculation of the structure and the emerging…
We examine optical V-band light curves in luminous eclipsing black hole X-ray binaries, using a supercritical accretion/outflow model that is more realistic than the formerly used ones. In order to compute the theoretical light curve in the…
The time-dependent Comptonized output of a cool soft X-ray source drifting inward through an inhomogeneous hot inner disk or corona is numerically simulated. We propose that this scenario can explain from first principles the observed…
While jets appear as a fundamental result of accretion processes onto compact objects in X-ray binaries, there is as yet no standard model for their underlying physics. The origin of the observed disk-jet coupling also remains largely…
X-ray polarimetry is a fine tool to probe the accretion geometry and physical processes operating in the proximity of compact objects, black holes and neutron stars. Recent discoveries made by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer put our…
We review X-ray flux modulation from X-ray binaries on time scales corresponding to the orbital period and those at longer time scales (so called superorbital). Those modulations provide a powerful tool to constrain geometry of the…
Using a geometry consisting of a hot central Comptonizing plasma surrounded by a thin accretion disk, we model the optical through hard X-ray spectral energy distributions of the type 1 Seyfert galaxies NGC 3516 and NGC 7469. As in the…
Observationally, it is found that there is a strong correlation between the hard X-ray photon index $\Gamma$ and the Compton reflection scaling factor $\Re$ in active galactic nuclei. In this paper, we propose that the $\Gamma-\Re$…
(Abridged) Among the various issues that remain open in the field of accretion onto black hole X-ray binaries (BHBs) is the way the gas accretes at very low Eddington ratios, in the so-called quiescent regime. While there is general…
Accreting black holes and neutron stars in their hard (low) state show not only very similar X/gamma-ray spectra but also that the behaviour of their light curves is quite similar which can be quantified as having similar power-density…
The X-ray emission from accreting black hole (BH) systems displays strong variability. Short reverberation lags are expected between the primary hard X-ray continuum and the reprocessed disc emission. These lags depend on light-travel…
The innermost regions of accretion disks around black holes are strongly irradiated by X-rays that are emitted from a highly variable, compact corona, in the immediate vicinity of the black hole. The X-rays that are seen reflected from the…
A framework for the interpretation of the spectral states of black hole X-ray transients based on the diversity of accretion disk models is introduced. Depending on the mass accretion rate, it is proposed that the accretion disk is…
We present a study of correlations between spectral and timing parameters for a sample of black hole X-ray binary candidates. Data are taken from GX 339-4, H 1743-322, and XTE J1650-500, as the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observed…
While the non-thermal radio through at least near-infrared emission in the hard state in X-ray binaries (XRBs) is known to originate in jets, the source of the non-thermal X-ray component is still uncertain. We introduce a new model for…
Time-resolved optical and infrared polarimetric observations of black hole and neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries are presented. Data were acquired with the VLT, UKIRT and HIPPO on the SAAO 1.9-m. We find that for some sources in…
(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…