The Central Engine of Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei - Scaling to Solar Mass Black-Holes
Abstract
The model of the previous paper (Ellison and Kazanas, hereafter EK) can be readily scaled to model systems with black holes 3-10 solar masses, such as those expected to exist in certain Galactic X-ray binaries. The model can account in a straightforward way for the bimodal behavior of Cyg X-1 and the other Galactic black hole candidates (White and Marshall 1984; White, et al., 1984). It is argued that the change in the spectrum with luminosity is due to the drastic increase of both the source compactness and luminosity with small changes in the accretion rate, and conversion of most of the energy into electron-positron pairs which render the source optically thick and modify its spectrum. It is also argued that similar effects may be observed in AGNs.
- Publication:
-
Supermassive Black Holes
- Pub Date:
- 1988
- Bibcode:
- 1988smbh.proc..319K
- Keywords:
-
- Active Galactic Nuclei;
- Black Holes (Astronomy);
- Quasars;
- Electron-Positron Pairs;
- Luminosity;
- Pair Production;
- Scale Models;
- X Ray Binaries;
- Astrophysics