Related papers: Hydrogen-Poor Disks in Compact X-Ray Binaries
Thermal instability is examined for advection-dominated one-temperature accretion disks. We consider axisymmetric perturbations with short wavelength in the radial direction. The viscosity is assumed to be sufficiently small for the…
Galactic black hole (BH) X-ray binaries are known to exhibit episodic outbursts, during which accretion and spectral mode distinctively transition between low/hard and high/soft state. X-ray observations during high/soft state occasionally…
X-rays trace accretion onto compact objects in binaries with low mass companions at rates ranging up to near Eddington. Accretion at high rates onto neutron stars goes through cycles with time-scales of days to months. At lower average…
Our understanding of the structure and properties of accretion disks in quiescent Dwarf Novae and X-ray Transients is very limited. Observations during quiescence challenge some of the standard Disk Instability Model (DIM) predictions. Our…
We present X-ray light curves for the cataclysmic variable EX Hydrae obtained with the Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer and the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Deep Survey photometer. We confirm earlier results on the…
The recurrent outbursts that characterise low-mass binary systems reflect thermal state changes in their associated accretion discs. The observed outbursts are connected to the strong variation in disc opacity as hydrogen ionises near 5000…
I review observations of the X-ray spectra of Galactic Black Hole Candidates, and theoretical ideas as to how these can be produced. X-ray reflection should enable different source geometries to be distinguished, but the ionisation…
Thermal conduction between a cool accretion disk and a hot inner corona can result in either evaporation of the disk or condensation of the hot corona. At low mass accretion rates, evaporation dominates and can completely remove the inner…
We show that thin accretion disks made of Carbon or Oxygen are subject to the same thermal ionization instability as Hydrogen and Helium disks. We argue that the instability applies to disks of any metal content. The relevance of the…
Cool weakly ionized gaseous rotating disk form the basis for many models in astrophysics objects. Instabilities against perturbations in such disks play an important role in the theory of the formation of stars and planets. Traditionally,…
We consider the combined role of the thermal ionization, magneto-rotational and gravitational instabilities in thin accretion disks around supermassive black holes. We find that in the portions of the disk unstable to the ionization…
The standard thin accretion disc model predicts that discs around stellar mass black holes become radiation pressure dominated and thermally unstable once their luminosity exceeds L>0.02 L_Edd. Observationally, discs in the high/soft state…
The consequences of the Auger effect on the population of heavy element ions are analyzed for the case of relatively cool gas irradiated by keV X-rays, with intended applications to the accretion disks of young stellar ob jects. Highly…
Accretion disks in AGN should be subject to the same type of instability as in cataclysmic variables (CVs) or in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), which leads to dwarf nova and soft X-ray transient outbursts. It has been suggested that this…
The standard equilibrium for radiation-dominated accretion disks has long been known to be viscously, thermally, and convectively unstable, but the nonlinear development of these instabilities---hence the actual state of such disks---has…
The so-called transition discs provide an important tool to probe various mechanisms that might influence the evolution of protoplanetary discs and therefore the formation of planetary systems. One of these mechanisms is photoevaporation…
The arising of turbulence in gas-dynamic (non-magnetic) accretion disks is a major issue of modern astrophysics. Such accretion disks should be stable against the turbulence generation, in contradiction to observations. Searching for…
Some effects of irradiation on time-dependent accretion-disk models for black hole X-ray novae are presented. Two types of irradiation are considered: direct irradiation from the inner hot disk and indirect irradiation as might be reflected…
New X-ray polarisation results are challenging our understanding of the accretion flow geometry in black hole binary systems. Even spectra dominated by a standard disc can give unexpected results, such as the high inclination black hole…
We examine the effects of photon bubble instability in radiation-dominated accretion disks such as those found around black holes in active galactic nuclei and X-ray binary star systems. Two- and 3-D numerical radiation MHD calculations of…