Galactic Black HOle Binary Systems

Abstract

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 instability of X-ray irradiated material in hydrostatic equilibrium gives rise to large ambiguities in interpretation. It is not currently possible to determine whether the underlying emission mechanism in the low state is an advective flow or magnetic reconnection above the disk, but more detailed modelling of the ionisation instability {\it may} allow us to distinguish between these scenarios.

Invited review at the COSPAR conference. Accepted for publication in Advances in Space Research

References in corpus (1)

• Mapping the inner accretion disk of the galactic black hole J1550-564 through its rise to outburst

Cited by in corpus (8)

• A universal radio/X-ray correlation in low/hard state black hole binaries
• Coronal outflow dominated accretion discs: a new possibility for low luminosity black holes?
• Coronal--Temporal Correlations in GX339-4: Hysteresis, Possible Reflection Changes, and Implications for ADAFs
• Resolving the Composite Fe K-alpha Emission Line in the Galactic Black Hole Cygnus X-1 with Chandra
• A transient large-scale relativistic radio jet from GX 339-4
• Truncated disc versus extremely broad iron line in XTE J1650-500
• Oblique magnetic fields and the role of frame dragging near rotating black hole
• Thermal X-ray iron line emission from the advection dominated accretion flow in the galactic binary GX 339-4