Thermal spectra of thin accretion disks of finite thickness around Kerr black holes

Abstract

The analysis of the thermal spectrum of geometrically thin and optically thick accretion disks of black holes, the so-called continuum-fitting method, is one of the leading techniques for measuring black hole spins. Current models normally approximate the disk as infinitesimally thin, while in reality the disk thickness is finite and increases as the black hole mass accretion rate increases. Here we present an XSPEC model to calculate the multi-temperature blackbody spectrum of a thin accretion disk of finite thickness around a Kerr black hole. We test our new model with an RXTE observation of the black hole binary GRS 1915+105. We find that the spin value inferred with the new model is slightly higher than the spin value obtained with a model with an infinitesimally thin disk, but the difference is small and the effect is currently subdominant with respect to other sources of uncertainties in the final spin measurement.

arXiv comment8 pages, 3 figures. v2: refereed version

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• Testing the Kerr black hole hypothesis with the continuum-fitting and the iron line methods: the case of GRS 1915+105
• Testing the Keplerian disk hypothesis using X-ray reflection spectroscopy
• The black hole spin in GRS 1915+105, revisited
• Tests of General Relativity using black hole X-ray data
• On the dynamics of the torus around the kicked black hole
• Testing General Relativity with Black Hole X-Ray Data and ABHModels