Hot accretion flow with radiative cooling: state transitions in black hole X-ray binaries [HEAP]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1604.02283


We investigate state transitions in black hole X-ray binaries through different parameters by using two-dimensional axisymmetric hydrodynamical simulation method. For radiative cooling in hot accretion flow, we take into account the bremsstrahlung, synchrotron and synchrotron-self Comptonization self-consistently in the dynamics. Our main result is that the state transitions occur when the accretion rate reaches a critical value $\dot M \sim 3\alpha\ \dot M_{\rm Edd}$, above which cold and dense clumpy/filamentary structures are formed, embedded within the hot gas. We argued this mode likely corresponds to the proposed two-phase accretion model, which may be responsible for the intermediate state of black hole X-ray binaries. When the accretion rate becomes sufficiently high, the clumpy/filamentary structures gradually merge and settle down onto the mid-plane. Eventually the accretion geometry transforms to a disc-corona configuration. In summary our results are consistent with the truncated accretion scenario for the state transition.

Read this paper on arXiv…

M. Wu, F. Xie, Y. Yuan, et. al.
Mon, 11 Apr 16
29/52

Comments: 13 pages, 10 figures, accepted by MNRAS