Related papers: Accretion Disc Evolution in GRO J1655-40 and LMC X…
Black hole X-ray binaries are ideal environments to test the accretion phenomena in the presence of strong gravitational potentials. KERRBB held an important place in the X-ray spectral continuum method for measuring the black hole spin…
We present a general relativistic accretion disc model and its application to the soft-state X-ray spectra of black hole binaries. The model assumes a flat, optically thick disc around a rotating Kerr black hole. The disc locally radiates…
We present results from spectral modeling of three black hole X-ray binaries: LMC X-3, GRO J1655-40, and XTE J1550-564. Using a sample of disk dominated observations, we fit the data with a range of spectral models that includes a simple…
We use a ray-tracing technique to compute the observed spectrum of a thin accretion disk around a Kerr black hole. We include all relativistic effects such as frame-dragging, Doppler boost, gravitational redshift, and bending of light by…
We present HST, RXTE, and UKIRT observations of the broad band spectra of the black hole X-ray transient XTE J1859+226 during the decline from its 1999-2000 outburst. Our UV spectra define the 2175A interstellar absorption feature very well…
Extragalactic Black Hole X-ray Binaries (BH-XRBs) are the most intriguing X-ray sources as some of them are `home' to the most massive stellar-mass BHs ever found. In this work, we conduct a comprehensive study of three massive, eclipsing…
We present calculations of non-LTE, relativistic accretion disk models applicable to the high/soft state of black hole X-ray binaries. We include the effects of thermal Comptonization and bound-free and free-free opacities of all abundant…
We model non-thermal emission spectrum of the extremely sub-Eddington X-ray binary system A0620-00. It is believed that this non-thermal emission is produced by a radiatively inefficient "quiescent" accretion onto a stellar-mass black hole…
Black hole binary transients undergo dramatic evolution in their X-ray timing and spectral behaviour during outbursts. In recent years a paradigm has arisen in which "soft" X-ray states are associated with an inner disc radius at, or very…
We present results from modeling of quasi-simultaneous broad band (radio through X-ray) observations of the galactic stellar black hole (BH) transient X-ray binary (XRB) systems XTE J1118+480 and GX 339-4 using an irradiated disc + compact…
Fitting the thermal continuum emission of accreting black holes observed across X-ray bands represents one of the principle means of constraining the properties (mass and spin) of astrophysical black holes. Recent ''continuum fitting''…
The recurring transient outbursts in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) provide us with strong test-beds for constraining the poorly understood accretion process. While impossible to image directly, phase-resolved spectroscopy can provide a…
We investigate the behaviour of the accretion discs in the outbursts of the low-mass black-hole X-ray binaries (BHXRB), an overview of which we have presented previously. Almost all of the systems in which there are sufficient observations…
The black-hole binary system LMC X-3 has been observed by virtually every X-ray mission since the inception of X-ray astronomy. Among the persistent sources, LMC X-3 is uniquely both habitually soft and highly variable. Using a fully…
Slim-disk models describe accretion flows at high luminosities, while reducing to the standard thin disk form in the low luminosity limit. We have developed a new spectral model, slimbb, within the framework of XSPEC, which describes fully…
Self-consistent vertical structure models together with non-LTE radiative transfer should produce spectra from accretion disks around black holes which differ from multitemperature blackbodies at levels which may be observed. High…
Variable features in black hole X-ray Binaries (BH-XRBs) are observed in different energy ranges and time scales. The physical origin of different spectral states in BH-XRBs and their relations with the underlying accretion disc are still…
Black holes accreting well below the Eddington rate are believed to have geometrically thick, optically thin, rotationally supported accretion discs in which the Coulomb mean free path is large compared to $GM/c^2$. In such an environment,…
We discuss black hole spin measurements employing the relativistic iron line profiles in the X-ray domain. We investigate the iron line band for two representative sources -- MCG -6-30-15 (active galaxy) and GX 339-4 (X-ray binary). We…
Using the flux resolved spectroscopy for the first time, we analyse the RXTE/PCA data of the black hole X-ray binaries GRS 1915+105 and IGR J17091-3624, when both sources show large amplitude, quasi-regular oscillations in 2.0-60.0 keV…