Related papers: Accretion Disks
This is a collection of notes to calculate electromagnetic spectra of geometrically thin and optically thick accretion disks around black holes. The presentation is intentionally pedagogical and most calculations are reported step by step.…
Recent developments in the spectropolarimetric study of compact objects, specifically black holes (stellar and massive) and neutron stars are reviewed. The lectures are organized around five topics: disks, jets, outflows, neutron stars and…
Spin parameters of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries are currently being estimated by fitting the X-ray continuum spectra of their accretion disk emission. For this method, it is necessary to know the inclination of the…
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 present new models for illuminated accretion disks, their structure and reprocessed emission. We consider the effects of incident X-rays on the surface of an accretion disk by solving simultaneously the equations of radiative transfer,…
These notes resulted from a series of lectures at the IAC winter school. They are designed to help students, especially those just starting in subject, to get hold of the fundamental tools used to study accretion powered sources. As such,…
Binary star systems can accrete material originating from a circumbinary disc. Since it is common for the circumbinary disc to be tilted with respect to the binary orbital plane, we test whether the accretion dynamics can be a diagnostic…
We report all possible basic solutions of an advective disk model and use them to explain major observations from black hole candidates.
The phenomenology of accretion disc, coronnae and jets in X-ray binaries is rather well established. However the structure of the accretion flow in the various spectral states is still debated and the connection between the hot flow and…
When an accretion disk surrounds a binary rotating in the same sense, the binary exerts strong torques on the gas. Analytic work in the 1D approximation indicated that these torques sharply diminish or even eliminate accretion from the disk…
Accretion disc theory was first developed as a theory with the local heat balance, where the whole energy produced by a viscous heating was emitted to the sides of the disc. One of the most important new invention of this theory was a…
We report on recent progress in our theoretical understanding of X-ray binaries, which has largely been driven by new observations, and illustrate the interplay between theory and observations considering as examples intermediate-mass X-ray…
Several physical and astrophysical problems related to accretion onto black holes and neutron stars are shortly reviewed. I discuss the observed differences between these two types of compact objects in quiescent Soft X-ray Transients. Then…
Turbulent Comptonization, a potentially important damping and radiation mechanism in relativistic accretion flows, is discussed. Particular emphasis is placed on the physical basis, relative importance, and thermodynamics of turbulent…
Ultraluminous X-ray binaries have challenged our assumptions of extreme accretion rates in X-ray binaries, and impact other subfields of astronomy, such as cosmology, gravitational wave sources and supernov{\ae}. Our understanding of ULXs…
The models that seek to explain the reflection spectrum in black hole binaries usually invoke a point-like primary source of hard X-rays. This source illuminates the accretion disk and gives rise to the discrete (lines) and…
It is commonly assumed that in black hole accretion disks the angular momenta of the disk and the black hole are aligned. However, for a significant fraction of stellar mass black holes and supermassive black holes, the momenta may not be…
In this review I summarise the observational connections between accretion and relativistic outflows -- jets -- in X-ray binaries. I argue that jets are likely to be a fairly ubiquitous property of X-ray binaries as a whole, an assertion…
The possibility that some of the observed X-ray and optical variability in active galactic nuclei and galactic black hole candidates is produced in accretion disks through the development of a self-organized critical state is reconsidered.…
Disk accretion onto magnetic stars occurs in a variety of systems, including accreting neutron stars (with both high and low magnetic fields), white dwarfs, and protostars. We review some of the key physical processes in magnetosphere-disk…