Related papers: An unstable inner disk in Cyg X-1 ?

The response of advection-dominated accretion disks to local disturbances is examined by one-dimensional numerical simulations. It is generally believed that advection-dominated disks are thermally stable. We, however, find that any…

We have simultaneously fit Chandra and RXTE spectra of the Galactic black hole XTE J1118+480 with three models for X-ray reflection. We explored a range of accretion disc ionizations (log(xi)=1-4; xi=L_X/nR^{2}) and iron abundances…

Recent observations of two black hole candidates (GX 339-4 and J1753.5-0127) in the low-hard state (L_X/L_Edd ~ 0.003-0.05) suggest the presence of a cool accretion disk very close to the innermost stable orbit of the black hole. This runs…

We analyzed simultaneous archival XMM-Newton and RXTE observations of the X-ray binary and black hole candidate Swift J1753.5-0127. In a previous analysis of the same data a soft thermal component was found in the X-ray spectrum, and the…

We present results from a coordinated $XMM$-$Newton$+$NuSTAR$ observation of the type 1.8 Seyfert galaxy IRAS 13197-1627. This is a highly complex source, with strong contributions from relativistic reflection from the inner accretion disk,…

The black-hole binary system LMC X-3 has been observed by virtually every X-ray mission since the inception of X-ray astronomy. Among the persistent sources, LMC X-3 is uniquely both habitually soft and highly variable. Using a fully…

We discover a pronounced dependence of the strength of the X-ray orbital modulation and the hardness in Cyg X-1 in the hard state on its superorbital phase. Our results can be well modelled as a combination of two effects: the precession of…

We present results from the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) observations of the new black hole X-ray binary candidate MAXI J1631-479 at two epochs during its 2018-2019 outburst, which caught the source in a disk dominant…

We study the X-ray illumination of an accretion disk. We relax the simplifying assumption of constant gas density used in most previous studies; instead we determine the density from hydrostatic balance. It is found that the thermal…

We analyse the aperiodic flaring features, also known as shots, observed in Cyg X-1 in the 0.1-80 keV energy band using a 6.39 ks simultaneous observation with AstroSat and NICER. We detect 49 simultaneous shots in the soft and hard X-ray…

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…

In most accreting black-hole systems the copious X-rays commonly observed from the inner-most regions are accompanied by a reflection spectrum. The latter is the signature of energetic photons reprocessed by the optically thick material of…

We explore the accretion properties of the black hole X-ray binary \j1550\ during its outbursts in 1998/99 and 2000. We model the disk, corona, and reflection components of X-ray spectra taken with the {\it Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer}…

The X-ray binary Cygnus X-3 is a highly variable X-ray source that displays a wide range of observed spectral states. One of the main states is significantly harder than the others, peaking at ~ 20 keV, with only a weak low-energy…

We present an analysis of the observed broad iron line feature and putative warm absorber in the long 2001 XMM-Newton observation of the Seyfert-1.2 galaxy MCG-6-30-15. The new "kerrdisk" model we have designed for simulating line emission…

We probe models of disc truncation in the hard spectral state of an outburst of the well-known X-ray transient GX 339--4. We test a large number of different models of disc reflection and its relativistic broadening, using two independent…

The degree to which the thin accretion disks of black hole X-ray binaries are truncated during hard spectral states remains a contentious open question in black hole astrophysics. During its singular observed outburst in…

There are many simplifications in current relativistic reflection models and this introduces systematic uncertainties in the measurement of the properties of the source. In this paper, we study the impact of the radiation crossing the…

In this paper, we summarize key observational constraints of the accretion flow on the black hole X-ray binary Cygnus X-1 (Cyg X-1). The discussion highlights the flows of energy close to the black hole and the importance of the distance…

We apply a reflection-based model to the best available XMM-Newton spectra of X-ray bright UltraLuminous X-ray (ULX) sources (NGC 1313 X-1, NGC 1313 X-2, M 81 X-6, Holmberg IX X-1, NGC 5408 X-1 and Holmberg II X-1). A spectral drop is…