Related papers: Black hole accretion discs: reality confronts theo…
We present results from two-dimensional, general relativistic, viscous, radiation hydrodynamic numerical simulations of Shakura-Sunyaev thin disks accreting onto stellar mass Schwarzschild black holes. We consider cases on both the gas- and…
The influence of disc radiation capture upon black hole rotational evolution is negligible for radiatively inefficient discs. For the standard thin disc model it is a slight but potentially important effect leading to the equilibrium spin…
Observational evidence accumulated over the past decade indicates that accretion discs in X-ray binaries are viscously stable unless they accrete very close to the Eddington limit. This is at odds with the most basic standard accretion disc…
Strongly magnetized accretion discs around black holes have attractive features that may explain enigmatic aspects of X-ray binary behaviour. The structure and evolution of these discs are governed by a dynamo-like mechanism, which channels…
The high energy radiation emitted by black hole X-ray binaries originates in an accretion disk, hence the variability of the lightcurves mirrors the dynamics of the disc. We study the time evolution of the emitted flux in order to find…
It is commonly believed that accretion discs are truncated and their inner regions are described by advection dominated accretion flows (ADAFs) in the hard spectral state of black hole X-ray binaries. However, the increasing occurrence of a…
X-ray binaries, as bright local sources with short variability timescales for a wide range of accretion processes, represent ideal targets for high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy. In this chapter, we present a high-resolution X-ray spectral…
The standard alpha-disc model predicts an anti-correlation between the density of the inner accretion disc and the black hole mass times square of the accretion rate, as seen in higher mass ($M_{\rm BH}>10^{6} M_{\odot}$) active galactic…
We examine the effects of the different viscosity prescriptions and the magnitude of the viscosity parameter, $\alpha$, on the structure of the slim disk, and discuss the observational implications on accretion-flow into a stellar-mass…
Relativistic reflection features are commonly observed in the X-ray spectra of accreting black holes. In the presence of high quality data and with the correct astrophysical model, X-ray reflection spectroscopy can be quite a powerful tool…
There are over 100 Be stars that are known to have neutron star companions but only one such system with a black hole. Previous theoretical work suggests this is not due to their formation but due to differences in X-ray luminosity. It has…
We review recent progress on the modeling and use of reflection spectra from irradiated and ionized accretion discs. On the computational side, calculations of reflection spectra from discs with non-uniform density structure have shown that…
We consider current observational constraints on the presence of cool, optically thick disk material in quiescent black hole binaries, specifically focusing on a case study of the prototypical system A0620-00. Such material might be…
Accretion in the nuclei of active galaxies may occur chaotically. This can produce accretion discs which are counter-rotating or strongly misaligned with respect to the spin of the central supermassive black hole (SMBH), or the axis of a…
Most astrophysical sources powered by accretion onto a black hole, either of stellar mass or supermassive, when observed with hard X-rays show signs of a hot Comptonizing component in the flow, the so-called corona, with observed…
We perform stability analysis of an accretion disc around a stellar mass black hole. The cooling of the accretion flow due to bremsstrahlung and synchrotron radiation processes are considered. The solutions with shock are perturbed at the…
We review the current understanding of accretion flows around compact objects with a special emphasis on advective disks. We discuss the influence of the centrifugal pressure supported high density region around compact objects (where…
We discuss the observational consequences of black hole spin in X-ray binaries within the framework of the standard thin accretion disk model. When compared to theoretical flux distribution from the surface of a thin disk surrounding a Kerr…
We propose that the recently discovered luminous hypersoft X-ray sources can be explained by accretion onto a binary black hole in a hierarchical triple system. For black hole masses $\sim 15 M_\odot$, the orbital separation of the internal…
We use a combination of a cosmological N-body simulation of the concordance Lambda cold dark matter (LCDM) paradigm and a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation to investigate the spin development of central supermassive black holes (BHs)…