Black Hole Binaries in Quiescence

Abstract

I discuss some of what is known and unknown about the behavior of black hole binary systems in the quiescent accretion state. Quiescence is important for several reasons: 1) the dominance of the companion star in the optical and IR wavelengths allows the binary parameters to be robustly determined - as an example, we argue that the longer proposed distance to the X-ray source GRO J1655-40 is correct; 2) quiescence represents the limiting case of an extremely low accretion rate, in which both accretion and jets can be observed; 3) understanding the evolution and duration of the quiescent state is a key factor in determining the overall demographics of X-rary binaries, which has taken on a new importance in the era of gravitational wave astronomy.

4 pages. To be published in Proceedings of IAU Symposium #324 "Frontiers of Black Hole Physics"

References in corpus (5)

• X-ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries
• Astrophysical Implications of the Binary Black-Hole Merger GW150914
• A radio-emitting outflow in the quiescent state of A0620-00: implications for modelling low-luminosity black hole binaries
• The Mass of the Black Hole in the X-ray Binary Nova Muscae 1991
• The Eccentric Accretion Disc of the Black Hole A0620-00