Related papers: Spectral transitions in X-ray Binaries
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…
Neutron stars in X-ray binary systems are fascinating objects that display a wide range of timing and spectral phenomena in the X-rays. Not only parameters of the neutron stars, like magnetic field strength and spin period evolve in their…
We present a unified picture to explain the spectral states of BH binaries based on the two-flow model. In our view, the central regions have a multi-flow configuration consisting in (1) an outer standard accretion disc (SAD) down to a…
X-ray spectroscopy of galactic black hole binaries serve as a powerful tool to gain an overall understanding of the system. Not only can the properties of the accretion disk be studied in detail, the fundamental properties of the black hole…
The fluctuating brightness of cosmic X-ray sources, particularly accreting black holes and neutron star systems, has enabled enormous progress in understanding the physics of turbulent accretion flows, the behaviour of matter on the…
How a black hole accretes matter and how this process is regulated are fundamental but unsolved questions in astrophysics. In transient black-hole binaries, a lot of mass stored in an accretion disk is suddenly drained to the central black…
In this chapter we review the formation and evolution of compact binaries with neutron star and/or black hole components (i.e. LMXBs, HMXBs, binary pulsars). After an introduction we discuss stellar evolution in binaries and the processes…
Black hole X-ray binaries (BHXBs) show rich phenomenology in the spectral and timing properties. We collected the spectral data of 20 BHXBs from the literature across different spectral states. The spectral properties are studied in the…
We present results on spectral variability of two Galactic black hole X-ray binaries, GRO J1655-40 and GX 339-4, in the hard state. We confirm a transition in behaviour of the photon index with luminosity, such that the well known decrease…
Disc spectra from highly luminous black hole binaries are observed to be rather simple, despite theoretical predictions to the contrary. We collate the disc-dominated spectra from multiple observations of 10 separate sources, and show that…
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 properties of X-ray emission from accreting black holes are reviewed. The contemporary observational picture and current status of theoretical understanding of accretion and formation of X-ray radiation in the vicinity of the compact…
We search the literature for reports on the spectral properties of neutron-star low-mass X-ray binaries when they have accretion luminosities between 1E34 and 1E36 ergs/s. We found that in this luminosity range the photon index (obtained…
Many low-mass X-ray binaries show both hard and soft spectral states. For several sources the transitions between these states have been observed, mostly from the soft to the hard state during a luminosity decrease. In a few cases also the…
We review recent works on the dynamics of circumbinary accretion, including time variability, angular momentum transfer between the disk and the binary, and the secular evolution of accreting binaries. These dynamics can impact stellar…
Using X-ray monitoring observations with the ASM on board the RXTE and the BAT on board the Swift, we are able to study the spectral state transitions occurred in about 20 bright persistent and transient black hole and neutron star…
The X-ray spectra of accreting stellar-mass black hole systems exhibit spectral features due to reflection, especially broad iron K alpha emission lines. We investigate the reflection by the accretion disc that can be expected in the…
Galactic accretion driven stellar X-ray sources can be divided into groups in different ways. An important division, which covers almost all known X-ray binaries, can be made according to the mass of the donor star: high-mass X-ray binaries…
We use Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer observations to conduct a population study of the timing properties of accretion-powered neutron star Low Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs), following a model-independent approach that was originally applied to…
The study of the evolution of X-ray spectra in tidal disruption events (TDEs) is an important approach for understanding the physical processes occurring near a supermassive black hole. Observations show that the X-ray spectra of TDEs are…