Related papers: Stronger Reflection from Black Hole Accretion Disk…
We present the analysis of several observations of the black hole binary GX 339--4 during its bright intermediate states from two different outbursts (2002 and 2004), as observed by RXTE/PCA. We perform a consistent study of its reflection…
We here examine the conditions of the two-phase disk model under which magnetic flares arise above the cold accretion disk due to magnetic buoyancy and produce X-rays via Comptonization of the disk's soft radiation. We find that the disk's…
In the absence of direct kinematic measurements, the mass of an accreting black hole is sometimes inferred from the X-ray spectral parameters of its accretion disk; specifically, from the temperature and normalization of a disk-blackbody…
Returning radiation is thought to play a key role in disk illumination of black hole X-ray binaries in the high-soft state, yet it has not been fully incorporated into XSPEC reflection models. We present a new table model for reflection…
We present spectral properties of an accretion disk model, in which a Keplerian accretion disk is flanked by a sub-Keplerian halo component terminating at a standing shock. The post-shock region (which may be considered to be the boundary…
I discuss some differences between the observed spectral states of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) and the canonical scheme of spectral states defined in Galactic black holes. The standard interpretation of ULXs with a curved spectrum,…
Two component X-ray spectra (soft multicolor black body plus harder power law) are frequently observed from accreting black holes. These components are presumably associated with the different parts of the accretion flow (optically thick…
High resolution spectra of Galactic Black Holes (GBH) reveal the presence of highly ionised absorbers. In one GBH, accreting close to the Eddington limit for more than a decade, a powerful accretion disc wind is observed to be present in…
We present a high-density relativistic reflection analysis of 21 spectra of six black hole X-ray binaries in the hard state with data from \textit{NuSTAR} and \textit{Swift}. We find that 76\% of the observations in our sample require a…
Re-analysis of some archival X-ray data of black hole binaries in soft spectral states is presented. Results of detailed spectral fitting, including proper physical description of the X-ray reprocessed component, indicate that in most cases…
We present numerical spectral and vertical structure calculations appropriate for near-Eddington-luminosity, radiation-pressure-dominated accretion disks around stellar-mass black holes. We cover a wide range of black hole spins and…
We investigate the role of Compton heating in radiation-regulated accretion on to black holes from a neutral dense medium using 1D radiation-hydrodynamic simulations. We focus on the relative effects of Compton-heating and photo-heating as…
We present a new model to calculate reflection spectra of thin accretion disks in Kerr spacetimes. Our model includes the effect of returning radiation, which is the radiation that is emitted by the disk and returns to the disk because of…
The X-ray variability in the soft X-ray spectral state of black hole binaries is primarily characterized by a power-law noise (PLN), which is thought to originate from the propagation of the modulation in the mass accretion rate of a…
We consider the Comptonisation of the photons that make up the relativistically blurred reflection that is commonly detected from the accretion discs of AGN by the coronae of energetic particles believed to give rise to the powerful X-ray…
We present general relativistic radiation MHD simulations of super-Eddington accretion on a $10M_\odot$ black hole. We consider a range of mass accretion rates, black hole spins, and magnetic field configurations. We compute the spectra and…
We present global radiation GRMHD simulations of strongly magnetized accretion onto a spinning, stellar mass black hole at sub-Eddington rates. Using a frequency-dependent Monte Carlo procedure for Compton scattering, we self-consistently…
We propose a new model of the steep power law state of luminous black hole X-ray binaries. The model uses the fact that at high luminosities, the inner radii of radiation pressure dominated accretion discs are expected to i) become…
We have analysed X-ray outbursts from several Galactic black hole (GBH) transients, as seen by the ASM on board RXTE. We have used the best estimates of distance and black hole mass to find their luminosity (scaled to the Eddington limit),…
An optically thin advective accretion disk is crucial for explaining the hard state of black hole sources. Using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations, we investigate how a large-scale, strong magnetic field…