Fast variability from black-hole binaries

Abstract

Currently available information on fast variability of the X-ray emission from accreting collapsed objects constitutes a complex phenomenology which is difficult to interpret. We review the current observational standpoint for black-hole binaries and survey models that have been proposed to interpret it. Despite the complex structure of the accretion flow, key observational diagnostics have been identified which can provide direct access to the dynamics of matter motions in the close vicinity of black holes and thus to the some of fundamental properties of curved spacetimes, where strong-field general relativistic effects can be observed.

20 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. Also to appear in hard cover in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI "The Physics of Accretion onto Black Holes" (Springer Publisher)

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Testing Gravity with Quasi Periodic Oscillations from accreting Black Holes: the Case of Einstein-Dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet Theory
• Super-spinning compact objects and models of high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations observed in Galactic microquasars
• Black hole spin inferred from 3:2 epicyclic resonance model of high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations
• Reprocessing model for the optical quasi-periodic oscillations in black hole binaries
• Inertial-Acoustic Oscillations of Black-Hole Accretion Discs with Large-Scale Poloidal Magnetic Fields