Related papers: The Physics of Black Hole X-ray Transients
The observations and theory of the exciting new class of galactic black hole X-ray transients is reviewed. Seven of these systems have measured mass functions or mass estimates in excess of stable neutron stars, making them excellent black…
The outburst cycles of black hole X-ray transients are now generally understood as caused by a thermal instability in the accretion disk, the same mechanism as in dwarf novae outbursts. During quiescence the accretion occurs via a cool disk…
The outbursts of black hole X-ray transients can be understood as caused by a limit cycle instability in the accretion disk, similar to dwarf nova outbursts. For adequately low mass overflow rates from the companion star long outburst…
We suggest a new scenario to explain the outburst light curves of black hole soft X-ray transients together with the secondary maximum and the bump seen on their decay phases. Our explanations are based on the disk instability models…
We have accumulated multiwavelength (X-ray, optical, radio) lightcurves for the eight black hole X-ray binaries which have been observed to enter a supposed `soft X-ray transient' outburst, but remained in the low/hard state throughout the…
Many black hole X-ray transients are in a low state for several decades until an outburst occurs. We interpret this outburst behaviour as a marginal occurrence of a dwarf nova type disk instability in the cool outer accretion disk. We…
Black hole X-ray binaries are transient probably because their discs are subject to the same thermal-viscous instability which is present in dwarf nova binary systems. I discuss applications of the dwarf-nova instability model to transient,…
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…
The current model for the outburst of stellar-mass black holes X-ray binaries is the disk instability model (DIM). An overview of this model and a discussion of its theoretical and observational challenges are given.
We have accumulated multiwavelength lightcurves for eight black hole X-ray binaries which have been observed to enter a supposed ``soft X-ray transient'' outburst, but which in fact remained in the low/hard state throughout the outburst.…
Very faint X-ray binaries appear to be transient in many cases with peak luminosities much fainter than that of usual soft X-ray transients, but their nature still remains elusive. We investigate the possibility that this transient…
We propose a model explaining the origin of transient/episodic jets in black-hole X-ray binaries, in which they are caused by transitions from a collimated, strongly magnetized, jet to a wide, un-collimated, outflow. The change occurs when…
We examine in detail several aspects of the physics of accretion disks of possible relevance to the outburst mechanism of the black hole X-ray transients. We adopt the one dimensional, time dependent model described in detail by Cannizzo,…
We report results from a systematic study of X-ray emission from black hole transients in quiescence. In this state mass accretion is thought to follow the geometry of an outer optically thick, geometrically thin disc and an inner optically…
While the non-thermal radio through at least near-infrared emission in the hard state in X-ray binaries (XRBs) is known to originate in jets, the source of the non-thermal X-ray component is still uncertain. We introduce a new model for…
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…
In the canonical understanding of transient X-ray sources the accretion during quiescence occurs via a geometrically thin disk in the outer part and via an advection-dominated hot coronal flow/ADAF in the inner part. The inner part…
Superradiant instability turns rotating astrophysical black holes into unique probes of light axions. We consider what happens when a light axion is coupled to a strongly coupled hidden gauge sector. In this case superradiance results in an…
Cosmological GRBs are discussed with an emphasis on their plausible connection with black holes. GRBs can be triggered by collapse of stellar-mass objects that leads to formation of a black hole and a transient debris disk with a huge…
Relativistic jets powered by stellar mass black holes in X-ray binaries appear to come in two types: steady outflows associated with hard X-ray states and large scale discrete ejections associated with transient outbursts. We show that the…