Related papers: Testing wind as an explanation for the spin proble…
Angular momentum and spin precession are expected to be generic features of a significant fraction of binary black hole systems. As such, it is essential to have waveform models that faithfully incorporate the effects of precession. Here,…
One of the primary means of determining the spin of an astrophysical black hole is by actually measuring the inner radius of a surrounding accretion disk and using that to infer the spin. By comparing a number of different estimates of the…
Neutron stars in high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) generally accrete from the wind matter of their massive companion stars. Recently Shakura et al. (2012) suggested a subsonic accretion model for low-luminosity ($<4\times 10^{36}$…
(Abridged) We use optical spectroscopy to investigate the disk, wind, and accretion during the 2008 ZCMa NW outburst. Over 1000 optical emission lines reveal accretion, a variable, multi-component wind, and double-peaked lines of disk…
The launching process of a magnetically driven outflow from an accretion disk is investigated in a local, shearing box model which allows a study of the feedback between accretion and angular momentum loss. The mass-flux instability found…
Recent multi-band variability studies have revealed that active galactic nucleus (AGN) accretion disc sizes are generally larger than the predictions of the classical thin disc by a factor of $2\sim 3$. This hints at some missing key…
The compact X-ray source in the eclipsing X-ray binary IC 10 X-1 has reigned for years as ostensibly the most massive stellar-mass black hole, with a mass estimated to be about twice that of its closest rival. However, striking results…
Using numerical simulations we present the accretion of supersonic winds onto a rotating black hole in three dimensions. We study five representative directions of the wind with respect to the axis of rotation of the black hole and focus on…
Galactic black hole (BH) X-ray binaries are known to exhibit episodic outbursts, during which accretion and spectral mode distinctively transition between low/hard and high/soft state. X-ray observations during high/soft state occasionally…
We have studied the accreting black hole binary GX 339--4 using two highly accurate broad-band X-ray data sets in very soft spectral states from simultaneous NICER and NuSTAR observations. Joint fitting of both data sets with relativistic…
We describe the first complete polarimetric dataset of the entire outburst of a low-mass black hole X-ray binary system and discuss the constraints for geometry and radiative mechanisms it imposes. During the decaying hard state, when the…
We study the effects of outflow/wind on the gravitational stability of accretion discs around supermassive black holes using a set of analytical steady-state solutions. Mass-loss rate by the outflow from the disc is assumed to be a…
We report on a 120 ks Chandra/HETG spectrum of the black hole GRS 1915+105. The observation was made during an extended and bright soft state in June, 2015. An extremely rich disk wind absorption spectrum is detected, similar to that…
(abridged) The accretion disk in AGN is expected to produce strong outflows, in particular a UV-line driven wind. Despite providing a good fit to the data, current spectral models of the X-ray spectrum of AGN observed through an accretion…
Blueshifted absorption is the classic spectroscopic signature of an accretion disc wind in X-ray binaries and cataclysmic variables (CVs). However, outflows can also create pure emission lines, especially at optical wavelengths. Therefore,…
Accretion disk reflection spectra, including broad iron emission lines, bear the imprints of the strong Doppler shifts and gravitational red-shifts close to black holes. The extremity of these shifts depends on the proximity of the…
We use numerical hydrodynamics simulations to study line driven winds launched from an accreting alpha-disc. Building on previous work where the driving radiation field is static, we compute a time-dependent radiation flux from the local,…
The absence of thermal instability in the high/soft state of black hole X-ray binaries, in disagreement with the standard thin disk theory, is a long-standing riddle for theoretical astronomers. We have tried to resolve this question by…
High-frequency quasiperiodic oscillations of the X-ray flux comming from black-hole binaries have the potential to provide precise estimates of the mass and the spin of the central black hole, if an adequate model for them was available.…
Black hole X-ray binaries are ideal environments to study the accretion phenomena in strong gravitational potentials. These systems undergo dramatic accretion state transitions and analysis of the X-ray spectra is used to probe the…