Lecture Ob5: Accretion disk: accretion flow and X-ray states in

black hole X-ray binaries (BHXBs)

You have studied formation of accretion disk and its viscous time scales (lectures 19-
25). In this lecture, we attempt to connect our this understanding with observed X-ray
spectrum as well as fast X-ray time variability. Standard accretion disk alone can not
explain the observations. Some of the X-ray binaries show fast X-ray state transition on
few second time scale which became more clear after the launch of NASA`s RXTE/PCA
in December 1995 which allowed continuous monitoring of some X-ray binaries. To
explain fast X-ray variability in black hole binaries, a concept of two component accretion
flow was introduced. One can understand it from the fact that our Sun at around 6000 K
temperature should emit in optical wavelengths (black body emission), but it does produce
X-ray which comes from corona (at few million degree K), a non-thermal emission.

Narayan & Yi (1994) have taken a self-similar solution and have divided the possible
solutions into two branches : with first type the energy is trapped from the disk and
converted to jets and the second type with advection dominated thick accretion disk
(advection dominated accretion flow(ADAF) ). Chakrabarti & Titarchuk (1995) have
suggested that the accretion disk has a highly viscous Keplerian part which resides on the
equatorial plane and a sub-Keplerian component which resides above and below it. The
need to define the viscosity parameter is circumvented by taking two accretion rates: the
accretion through the classical ``standard'' disk and the accretion through the
sub-Keplerian component (halo or corona). Here the change of spectral states are
ascribed to the change over from a purely thin accretion disk (with advection
occurring very close to the black hole) in the high-soft state to the advective disk extending
over a large distance in the low-hard state. The hard X-ray power-law component is
ascribed to the Comptonisation spectrum from the advective disk and the Shakura-
Sunyaev multi-temperature disk emission ( thermal emission; which is predominant in
energies below ~ 10 keV) is associated with the standard thin disk. The advective thick
disk and the standard thin disk may co-exist upto a certain radial distance.

It should be further noted here that the derivation of R in is very much model dependent
and we use this quantity only for a qualitative description of the X-ray spectral states and
also to make an order of magnitude estimate of time scales involved in the change of
spectral states.
Yadav et al 1999 has used two component accretion flows to explain fast X-ray state
transition in black hole X-ray binary GRS 1915+105 . Such fast transition of
X-ray states are feasible in the two component accretion flows where the
advective disk covers the standard thin disk.

Figure 1: For three type of X-ray flares in GRS 1915+105; top panels show RXTE/PCA lightcurves (2-60
keV), Middle panels show Hardness ratio (HR2= ratio of flux in 13-60 kev to the flux in 2-13 kev range)
which is a indicator of non-thermal emission normalized to thermal emission. While bottom panels indicate
disk temperature variation (Hardness ratio HR1 is an indicator of disk temperature).

In the low-hard state of the source the thin Keplerian disk is visible only from a large radial
distance R , the sub-Keplerian component completely encompasses the thin disk below
o
this radius (the soft photons from the disk act as seeds for the Comptonisation process).
Here m is disk accretion rate. M is non-Keplerian halo accretion rate. This change in
d h
accretion rates can occur either due to the change in the total accretion rate ( m = m
t d
+m ) or due to some thermal instability in the accretion disk. It explains the fast
h
variability of X-ray flares in figure1; when flux is high in top panels, non-thremal emission
is less, thermal emission is more. It suggests that the halo accretion rate is reduced. If the
halo accretion rate is increased, all the three parameters show opposite behavior. Here R
o
will increase (R behaves like R when it is estimated from energy spectrum). As we
in o
mentioned above that these are approximate estimates. H is accretion disk thickness
and α is viscosity parameter.
1. Viscous time scale of standard disk:

2. Viscous time scale

of Halo accretion
flow:

These calculation are taken from Yadav et al (1999). The viscous time scales of the halo
accretion flow is around 1 s and it will allow fast transition.

Done and Kobuta (2006) has extended further two component accretion flow concept
and we give below rough sketch of possible combinations along with accretion rate
normalized to the Eddington accretion rate.
 Figure 2: Sketch of standard disk and halo accretion thick disk as a function of total
accretion rate.

Various X-ray states In brief are:

1. Quiescent state : Only non-thermal faint emission and disk is not visible. It happens in
the start and at end of an outburst.
2. Low Hard state : Strong Non thermal emission while disk is still not visible.
3. Intermediate state: Non thermal and thermal both emissions present.
4. High soft State: Thermal emission is strong and non-thermal emission is almost absent.
Source reaches this X-ray state at around 1-3 % of Eddington luminosity and disk is
extended upto to the inner most radii.
5. Very high State: Both thermal and non thermal are strong and disk extends to inner
most radii although it may be truncated. Source is closing Eddington accretion rate.

References:
1. Chakrabarti, S. K., & Titarchuk, L. G. 1995 ApJ, 455, 623
2. Narayan, R., & Yi, I. 1994, ApJ,428, L13
3. C. Done, A. Kubota: MNRAS, 371, 1216 (2006) 80
4. Yadav, J. S., Rao, A. R., Agrawal, P. C., Paul, B., Seetha, S.,
Kasturirangan, K., 1999, ApJ, 517, 935