Related papers: Old models for Cygnus X-1 and AGN
Two related topics are discussed. 1. Accretion onto black holes at low and high (though not very high) rates is believed to proceed adiabatically ({\em ie} non-radiatively). It is argued that the liberated energy is carried off by an…
Highly-ionized fast accretion-disk winds have been suggested as an explanation for a variety of observed absorption and emission features in the X-ray spectra of Active Galactic Nuclei. Simple estimates have suggested that these flows may…
We present the results of multi-year gamma-ray observations by the AGILE satellite of the black hole binary system Cygnus X-1. In a previous investigation we focused on gamma-ray observations of Cygnus X-1 in the hard state during the…
Hard X-ray emission is ubiquitous in accreting black holes, both in Galactic binary systems and in Active Galactic Nuclei. I review the different spectra which can be seen from these systems, and possible ways of producing this emission.…
Analysis of spectral absorption features has led to the identification of several distinct outflow components in AGNs. The outflowing gas is evidently photoionized by the nuclear continuum source and originates in the accretion flow toward…
Galactic binary systems that contain a black hole candidate emit hard X-rays in their low luminosity mode. We show that this emission can be understood as due to the Compton scattering of photons from the companion star and/or the accretion…
We present models of the soft X-ray transients, A0620-00, V404 Cyg, and X-ray Nova Mus 1991, in quiescence. In each source, we postulate that there is an outer region, extending outward from about 3000 Schwarzschild radii, where the…
I review the main results from recent 2-D, time-dependent hydrodynamic models of radiation-driven winds from accretion disks in AGN. I also discuss the physical conditions needed for a disk wind to be shielded from the strong X-rays and to…
We use global three dimensional radiation magneto-hydrodynamic simulations to study the properties of inner regions of accretion disks around a 5\times 10^8 solar mass black hole with mass accretion rates reaching 7% and 20% of the…
A solid theoretical understanding of how inflowing, accreting plasma around black holes and other compact objects gives rise to outflowing winds and jets is still lacking, despite decades of observations. The fact that similar processes and…
We present a multi-epoch hard X-ray analysis of Cygnus X-1 in its soft state based on four observations with NuSTAR. Despite the basic similarity of the observed spectra, there is clear spectral variability between epochs. To investigate…
The colossal power output of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is believed to be fueled by the accretion of matter onto a supermassive black hole. This central accreting region of AGN has hitherto been spatially unresolved and its structure…
Selected topics dealing with X-ray/soft gamma-ray emission from accreting black-hole sources are reviewed. The shape of soft gamma-ray spectra of Seyferts observed by OSSE can be well modelled by thermal Comptonization. A very strong…
The hard X-ray emission of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is believed to originate from the hot coronae above the cold accretion discs. The hard X-ray spectral index is found to be correlated with the Eddington ratio, and the hard X-ray…
XMM-Newton is capable of making a transformational advance in our understanding of how luminous accreting black holes work, by dedicating about 10 per cent of future observing time to long observations, of order Megaseconds, to X-ray…
Thanks to extensive observations with X-ray missions and facilities working in other wavelengths, as well as rapidly--advancing numerical simulations of accretion flows, our knowledge of astrophysical black holes has been remarkably…
We develop a two-flow model of accretion onto a black hole which incorporates the effect of the local magneto-rotational instability. The flow consists of an accretion disk and an accreting corona, and the local dynamo affects the…
In the X-ray spectra of AGNs, a noticeable excess of soft X-rays is typically detected beyond the extrapolation of the power-law trend observed between 2-10 keV. In the scenario of warm Comptonization, observations propose a warm corona…
(abridged) The soft excess seen in the X-ray spectra of many high mass accretion rate AGN can be well modelled by reflection from a partially ionised accretion disc. However, the derived parameters are often extreme, both in terms of the…
We present a large sample of type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGN) spectra taken with XMM-Newton, and fit them with both the conventional model (a power law and black body) and the relativistically-blurred photoionized disc reflection model…