Comparing Black Hole Binaries in the Hard State: From Standard to Extreme Behavior
Abstract
In the last several years, multiwavelength monitoring programs have allowed us to develop a general description of the observational
characteristics of accreting black holes as they journey through their outburst cycles. Driven seemingly to a large extent by the accretion rate, these sources display an almost predictable series of physical changes which have been grouped into both transient and more stable accretion states. Despite the phenomenology, there is currently no consensus on the underlying physical picture for most of these states. However, a great deal of data are now available to help develop such a framework. In this poster we present some recent results from modeling the relatively stable hard accretion state, associated with a steady jet and predominantly non-thermal radio, IR/O and X-ray emission. Our focus is on comparing two "outlier" sources, the plateau state of GRS 1915+105 at the likely super-Eddington regime, and A0620-00 at an almost Sgr A*-like low accretion rate, to more "standard" sources. We also present preliminary results from applying an outflow-dominated model to multiple simultaneous data sets of Cyg X-1, including one with Suzaku data. We discuss interpretation in terms of underlying jet physics and emission geometry.- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #213
- Pub Date:
- January 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AAS...21341004M