Abstract
Abstract
State transitions in black hole X-ray binaries are likely caused by gas evaporation from a thin accretion disk into a hot corona. We present a height-integrated version of this process, which is suitable for analytical and numerical studies. With radius r scaled to Schwarzschild units and coronal mass accretion rate
m
̇
c
to Eddington units, the results of the model are independent of black hole mass. State transitions should thus be similar in X-ray binaries and an active galactic nucleus. The corona solution consists of two power-law segments separated at a break radius r
b
∼ 103(α/0.3)−2, where α is the viscosity parameter. Gas evaporates from the disk to the corona for r > r
b
, and condenses back for r < r
b
. At r
b
,
m
̇
c
reaches its maximum,
m
̇
c
,
max
≈
0.02
(
α
/
0.3
)
3
. If at r ≫ r
b
the thin disk accretes with
m
̇
d
<
m
̇
c
,
max
, then the disk evaporates fully before reaching r
b
, giving the hard state. Otherwise, the disk survives at all radii, giving the thermal state. While the basic model considers only bremsstrahlung cooling and viscous heating, we also discuss a more realistic model that includes Compton cooling and direct coronal heating by energy transport from the disk. Solutions are again independent of black hole mass, and r
b
remains unchanged. This model predicts strong coronal winds for r > r
b
, and a T ∼ 5 × 108 K Compton-cooled corona for r < r
b
. Two-temperature effects are ignored, but may be important at small radii.
Funder
NSF ∣ OD ∣ Office of International Science and Engineering
Publisher
American Astronomical Society
Subject
Space and Planetary Science,Astronomy and Astrophysics
Cited by
8 articles.
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