Related papers: Modeling fast X-ray variability around an accretin…
We have performed a spectral-timing analysis on the black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1535--571 during its 2017 outburst, with the aim of exploring the evolution of the inner accretion flow geometry. X-ray reverberation lags are observed in the…
The variability of the X-ray emission from active galactic nuclei is often characterized using time lags observed between soft and hard energy bands in the detector. The time lags are usually computed using the complex cross spectrum, which…
The spectral and timing properties of an oscillating hot thermal corona are investigated. This oscillation is assumed to be due to a magneto-acoustic wave propagating within the corona and triggered by an external, non specified,…
The observed correlation between the radio and X-ray fluxes in the hard state of black-hole X-ray binaries (BHXRBs) has been around for more than two decades. It is currently accepted that the hard X-rays in BHXRBs come from Comptonization…
I review the temporal/spectral data of accreting black hole sources paying most attention to the properties of the temporal variability such as photon energy dependent auto- and cross-correlation functions, average shot profiles and…
Black hole binary systems can emit very bright and rapidly varying X-ray signals when material from the companion accretes onto the black hole, liberating huge amounts of gravitational potential energy. Central to this process of accretion…
The X-ray spectra of black hole binaries in the low/hard state first harden as the flux decreases, then soften. This change in behaviour has been variously attributed to either the X-rays switching from being produced in the flow to being…
Black hole accretion flows show rapid X-ray variability. The Power Spectral Density (PSD) of this is typically fit by a phenomenological model of multiple Lorentzians for both the broad band noise and Quasi-Periodic Oscillations (QPOs). Our…
Using a non-linear Monte-Carlo code we investigate the radiative response of an accretion disk corona system to static homogeneous flares. We model a flare by a rapid (comparable to the light crossing time) energy dissipation in the corona…
We present high-speed optical photometry from SAAO and SALT on the black hole LMXB \MAXI (ASSASN-18ey), some of it simultaneous with NICER, Swift and Insight-HXMT X-ray coverage. We detect optical Quasi-Periodic Oscillations (QPOs) that…
We interpret the rapid correlated UV/optical/ X-ray variability of XTE J1118+480 as a signature of the coupling between the X-ray corona and a jet emitting synchrotron radiation in the optical band. We propose a scenario in which the jet…
We build a full spectral-timing model for the low/hard state of black hole binaries assuming that the spectrum of the X-ray hot flow can be produced by two Comptonisation zones. Slow fluctuations generated at the largest radii/softest…
Using new XMM-Newton observations we detect hard X-ray time lags in the rapid variability of the Compton-thin Seyfert 2 galaxy IRAS 18325-5926. The higher-energy X-ray variations lag behind correlated lower-energy variations by up to ~3ks…
We have performed Monte Carlo simulations of Compton upscattering of low-energy photons in an accretion disk around a Schwarzschild black hole. The photons gain energy from the rotational motion of the electrons in the disk. The…
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…
It has long been speculated that the nature of the hard X-ray corona may be an important second driver of black hole state transitions, in addition to the mass accretion rate through the disk. However, a clear physical picture of coronal…
Temporal analysis of X-ray binaries and Active Galactic Nuclei have shown that hard X-rays react to variation of soft ones after a time delay. The opposite trend, or soft lag, has only been seen in a few rare Quasi-periodic Oscillations in…
Recently, we reported an observational correlation between a) the time-lag of the hard (9 - 15 keV) with respect to the soft (2 - 5 keV) X-ray photons in black-hole X-ray binaries (BHXRBs) and b) the power-law photon index $\Gamma$ of the…
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…
We present the publicly available model \textsc{reltrans} that calculates the light-crossing delays and energy shifts experienced by X-ray photons originally emitted close to the black hole when they reflect from the accretion disk and are…